


(Something) Just Like This

by Mintsea



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: 6x03 smut, 6x08 smut, Canon Compliant, Counter Sex, Earth-x, Olicity parenting, Oliver's out of jail, Oliver’s PTSD, Oliver’s parenting issues post 6x18, Oral Sex, Post-Crisis On Earth-X Crossover Event (CW DC TV Universe), Slow Dancing, Team Arrow take in Diaz, Wedding Proposal, William & Felicity bonding, olicity - Freeform, post 6x23, season 5.5, season 6, season 6 fix it fics, season 6 missing scenes, spec fics, what happened over the summer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-22
Updated: 2018-07-25
Packaged: 2019-01-21 04:12:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 43,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12449448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mintsea/pseuds/Mintsea
Summary: A collection of season 6 canon ficlics and silences we won't or didn’t get to see on screen. Prompts welcome.Chapters 9,10,11: 9 Weeks Later (Post 6x23).NOW FINISHED.Felicity and the team have spent the last 9 weeks while Oliver’s been behind bars searching and tracking Diaz, waiting patiently for the Dragon to raise his ugly head so they can strike. But in the chaos of Diaz’s return, Oliver’s freed from Slabside with his own mission: trading Diaz for his own freedom.The plan should be easy, but Oliver isn’t prepared for the huge changes his family and his team have faced while he’s been gone.When Diaz blindsights them, Oliver has to dig deep, pushing aside his emotional post Green Arrow baggage to stand up and be the hero the city remembers him to be.But, at the end of the day, the plan's gone to hell.And now, so must Diaz.





	1. Black Coffee (pre 6x01)

**Author's Note:**

> AN: I am still working on When We Were Young, but I really wanted a place where I could work through some missing scenes and fix it ficlets for Season 6. These will just be short little snapshots. Mostly Olicity, but anything I see on screen that inspires me will go here too.

**(Something) Just Like This**

 

 **#1 Black Coffee (pre 6x01)**  
_Felicity and Oliver have the talk about putting things on hold._

 

 **May 2017**.  **9 days after Lian Yu.**

“One extra strong industrial strength black coffee,” Felicity says handing the large white Palmer Technologies mug down to Oliver with a smile.

She takes the opportunity as she passes behind the leather sofa where he is currently seated to gently squeeze his exhausted shoulder comfortingly, before sliding into the cushions at the opposite end of the two seater sofa.

Oliver folds the file of paperwork he’d been pouring over closed, and gives her an appreciatively smile. He hadn’t expected to see her tonight, not with the rest of the team still recuperating from last week’s events, but she had turned up about ten minutes ago, and after spending the afternoon making funeral arrangements with William and Samantha’s parents, he can’t believe how much she’d lifted his spirits already. He was energised by her presence. And hadn’t realised how much he missed her, even though he’d seen her just yesterday when she’d delivered takeout to the apartment for him and William, until he’d seen her smile.

Felicity makes herself comfortable beside him - at a modest and innocent distance - and discarding her ballet flats, tucks her jeaned knees up close to her chest, her bare pale pink painted toes hanging off the seat of the sofa. She clutches at her own mug, filled with decaf and as much milk and sugar she can handle at this hour of the night without ruining all hope of sleep. Her sleep routine is complete shot at the moment, her slumber restless and unsettled either at her lonely loft, or in the hard plastic chair at Thea’s bedside.

Felicity sips at her coffee thoughtfully, holding his gaze as long as she can.

“You must really pity me if you are making me coffee,” Oliver tells her with a self-deprecating smile; he can count on one hand the number of times she’s made him coffee over the years, and all of them usually come with an air of pity or obligation.

Felicity’s smile brightens.

“It’s a special milestone,” she tells him sweetly, resting her cup on her chin, and taking a moment to blow on her steaming coffee. Her puffs of air combined with the steam make her glasses fog and he tries not to chuckle at the resigned sigh of annoyance that falls from her lips.

Oliver cocks his head at her.

“What are we celebrating exactly?” He asks, brow knitted in confusion. Because, if he’s honest, there is not a hell of a lot to celebrate right now, one week post return from Lian Yu. Their list of losses outweigh the gains right now.

“You,” Felicity says with a happy smile, but Oliver’s face crinkles just as she expected it would. “Oliver, you made it through your first week as a full time Dad. And, it’s been traumatic, and hellish, and I am pretty sure you wish that coffee cup was filled to the brim with Vodka, but...you made it. And I am proud of you.”

It’s uplifting and heartbreaking to hear those words from her despite everything. This week has been beyond tough, possibly the hardest he’s ever had to face, and he’s faced some horrid shit over the years. He’d even take a year of Chase’s dungeon torture if it meant taking back the last eight or nine days. If it meant he could give William back his mother. If it meant Thea was well and awake and happy. If it meant he could be with Felicity right the hell now and not just sometime soon.

Oliver blows out a heavy breath, his shoulders sagging as he leans back into the sofa with exhaustion. He rests his elbow on the arm rest, and rubs his brow forlornly as he lifts the mug to his lips to drink.

“It’s still early days,” Oliver reminds her. “I have to get William to actually speak to me before I can celebrate any parenting wins.” Oliver grimaces. “We are currently on the mostly ignoring I exist part of the transition.”

Felicity smiles at him patiently. “Give him time Oliver. You will win him over.”

God he hopes so; because, right now, he feel pretty damn hopeless. Granted, having to face Samantha’s parents this week and help organise her funeral hasn’t helped. In fact, Oliver thinks in part, it’s made things worse. He’s had to battle not only the perceptions of him as William’s absent father Samantha had instilled in William but her parents also. It’s been a rough gig.

Oliver’s not normally a man that needs reassurance, but he finds himself wanting it, needing it now, from Felicity.

“How do you know? I have no idea what I am doing...and I just feel like every decision I make is making a bigger mess of things.”

Felicity gives him a kind look, and she lowers her mug pensively, reaching out to place her hand on his forearm. His sleeves are rolled up to his elbows, and his tie, like his jacket is hanging over the back of her chair at her workstation. His eyes fall to hand and her tender touch on his bare skin makes his breath catch.

“Little wins are all any of us can hope for right now,” she tells him, and it feels like the best advice and comfort he’s had in days. “And I know you’ll win him over because, after everything that happened between us, and everything that didn’t, you won me over. Again.”

Oliver places his coffee on the table in front of them and turns his body towards her in his seat, bringing his right leg up to rest on the sofa. He takes her hand in his, sliding his palm against her skin. Their fingers wind together, softly, gently at first, before he knots them together and squeezes.

“I know we haven’t talked properly since the airport...” he admits with a grimace.

They’d talked only ever so briefly about their relationship since Lian Yu. Their conversation had been hurried, a moment at the airport when the team had disembarked from the ARGUS helicopters Lyla had sent and Felicity had told him that she was all in, if he wanted her, her responsibilities and the stakes now that Oliver was William’s guardian increasing tenfold. But, she knew they needed some time for the dust to settle, for William to adjust. They needed time to bond without her. And so, everything was on hold. For now.

“Oliver, I told you I am not going anywhere.”

“I wish I had a timeframe-“ Oliver says, and before he can stop himself, he reaches up to caress her cheek, his thumb tracing the flush of her skin his touch creates.

She slides her hand over his as it cups her face. “Oliver, I am not going anywhere,” she tells him with a smile. “When both Thea and William are stable, then we’ll move forward.”

Felicity expects him to reply, but he doesn’t, not with words, and she can’t bring herself to look away from the intense look in his eyes. He wets his lips anxiously, like he’s weighing up all the moves he wants to make, like he’s evaluating a mission plan, and she’s his Target. He’s forty steps ahead of her, she can see it in his eyes. She can feel it and she just-

“I really want you to kiss me.” The words bubble out of her traitorous mouth before she realises, and it makes him beam back at her.

“I really want to kiss you.”

Felicity huffs a laugh. “Remember when we used to kiss without talking about it,” she says, making him laugh, and he drops his hands away from her knowing he needs to cool it.

But she doesn’t let him go to far, because the moment he breaks contact with her skin, she is chasing his touch. She abandons her coffee and climbs to her knees, moving towards him. His knees fall apart adjusting his position on the couch in expectation, and before he knows it, she’s hiking one knee over his lap, her lips on his as she presses her body against his.

He holds her tightly, carefully, one strong arm settling against the length of her spine, his fingers splade against the fabric of her casual lilac coloured tee, his other hand cupping her cheek, pressing her lips close.

It’s like breathing when their lips touch - fresh air flows into his lungs, into his body - waking him. And it’s not just arousing -because it fucking is, she’s in his lap and god he just knows the things she can do with an arch of her hips- it’s oxygenating. Their kisses intensified, tongue against tongue, teeth nipping at lips, until they need to break apart, foreheads presses together as they both pant for air. This isn’t them on hold, in fact this is them decidedly not on hold.

Maybe it’s this place the one they built together, their bunker, their home that intensifies this need between them right now. It’s home, and them being together is home. They’d been here last time they’d kissed like this too and that memory sparks for both of them at the same time.

Moments later Felicity’s tee is being pulled over her head, her messy wavy hair falling about her face as Oliver pulls the tie from her hair. He moves his lips across her skin, running wide open mouth kisses down her collarbone to her chest and Felicity moans, her eyes slipping closed as her fingers tangle on his hair pulling his lips closer to her skin as she cradles him there....

Buzz. Buzzzzz. Buzz. Buzzzz.

They both stop; panting, Oliver’s forehead presses to her chest like he’s hoping for the interruption to go away by not acknowledging it. But Felicity can’t; and she immediately feels guilty that it could be William. And not answering your grieving son’s call because you are making out with your ex hardly counts as a good excuse...

“Answer it,” Felicity tells him breathlessly. “It’ll be important...”

Oliver nods, but Felicity’s thigh is straddling his, trapping his phone in his pants pocket.

“It’s in my pocket...” Oliver tells her, and she nods, shuffling a little so she can fish his phone from his pants pocket for him, while his hands rest on her bare back, holding her close so she doesn’t tumble onto the floor.

Her back arches as she lifts the phone to read the screen and her breasts, spilling a little over her demi cup bra, are suddenly in his face. For fuck sake. Can’t he catch a break?

She hands him the phone. “William,” she says, and he nods, takes the phone and connects the call.

“Hey Bud,” Oliver greets and Felicity suddenly feels self conscious and embarrassed sitting in Oliver’s lap topless as he has a conversation on the phone with his pre-teen son. Felicity makes to move, but Oliver stops her, shakes his head, and stills her movements, gripping at one of hips, holding her in place, with his longer calloused fingers. “What’s up?”

Oliver’s brow knots as he listens to William on the other end of call. Felicity can faintly here William’s worried voice murmuring to his father about feeling unwell. Oliver grimaces at Felicity, his apology already forming because their night is over, and sensing it, she just gives him a head tilt that says she understands. “Have Gran take you straight home to bed Bud, and I will stop off on the way and get you some medicine. I’m leaving work now, so I will see you soon, okay?”

William agrees and Oliver tells him again, “I be there shortly Will,” before shutting off the call.

Felicity gives him an expectant look, her arms crisscrossing against her chest. She’s not self conscious of him seeing her half naked, but she feels odd about the whole thing now.

Oliver groans, dropping his head back against the back of the sofa, his fingers tracing the waistband of her jeans on her hip. “William’s not feeling well so they’ve left the movie early and are heading home.”

“You should go make sure he’s okay,” She tells him with an understanding smile.

He can’t believe how casually she says it, like the beard burn around her lips doesn’t exist, like she’s not sitting in his lap, sans shirt, her breast in his face and her body pressed against him. He sucks in a deep breath, and reaches up to stroking her cheek with the back of his hand.

“You are so amazing.”

“I know,” she smiles. “You need to go, Oliver,” she reminds him again, and reluctantly he nods.

“Can I call you later?” He asks. “Before bed?”

Felicity grins but Oliver heads her off. “Not for that. I miss you Felicity. And, even if we can’t be together right now, I still need you.”

Felicity leans closer, cupping his cheeks as she pulls him closer for a soft and chaste kiss. “I’d like that,” she says. “A lot.” She drops one hand to his chest, placing her hand over his heart. “Now go be with your son.”

*

 

 


	2. Together - Part 1 (6x01)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> #2 Together - Part 1 (6x01)  
> The extended phone call from the end of 6x01. With some extra Olicity.

**#2 Together - Part 1 (6x01)**

Felicity is frozen, her cell phone presses to her ear. “Oliver, what are we going to do?”

On the other end of the call, in the next suburb over, Oliver stares at the tv screen and finds his own photo looking back at him. A wave of panic washes over him.

“I have no idea,” he admits to her, his voice low and...sad? He sounds wretched and her heart bleeds.

It’s the same tone he had used the other night at the bunker - 90% broken, 10% lost. That tone, that moment, had been the reason she’d been calling in the first place; she knew he’d wanted to talk and now they had the time, but as she’d hit call on his name in her address book, the news bulletin had flashed across her screen and their conversation was now on a different trajectory.

“We need a plan,” she breathes desperately. “A _good_ one.”

He’d wants to laugh, because they were also very good at bad plans.

“Any ideas?”

Felicity thinks, thinks hard, but her mind is reeling and everything flashes through like all the thoughts are coming at once.

“We need to know more about the photograph. Oliver, I am coming over - we need to figure this out.”

“Okay. Thank you.”

“I will be there as soon as I can,” she tries to reassure him before disconnecting the call and springing into action, grabbing her laptop and tablet and shoving them haphazardly into her handbag on the nearby dining table, before she’s bustling out the door.

Over at his loft, Oliver’s knees buckle and he finds himself sitting down on the large (and sturdy) coffee table. He shrugs off his jacket, throwing it onto the sofa, pulls off his cuff links and rolls up his sleeves. He watches the news on mute, the story cycling around and around the facts - Oliver. Queen. Is. The. Green. Arrow.

How did they get here so fast, yet again? This time, they’d been so careful. Granted, a lot of people knew his secret this time around, but they have processes and security in place. He never took his mask off while out in the field. Except for Lian Yu. So how...oh god. He drops his head into his hands. Oh god, there is so much more at stake now than just him.

He blows out a breath. Get it together Queen. Think...

Oliver isn’t sure how long he sits there, wracking his brain for a plan, but he comes up empty and before he knows it, there is a quiet yet sharp wrap on the door signalling Felicity’s arrival. Oliver climbs to his feet and moves to the front door in long strides, barely registering that it’s Felicity before she’s pushing through the door, pulling him into a hug her arms around his neck.

“We are going to figure this out,” Felicity says to him gently, pulling back a little to look at him. She reads the expression on his face instantly. The stakes this time are too great, maybe for all of them and he’s more worried than ever. It’s not just him...or her...he has to consider...but William too. “You aren’t going to jail and you are not going to lose him.”

Oliver lowers his head. “Okay,” he says trusting her. His eyes scan her outfit and a small smile crosses his lips, one eyebrow peaking. He hasn’t seem her like this for a long time and her outfit, pyjamas, is a direct contrast to the weight of their current situation.

She huffs an awkward almost bashful laugh as she moves past him and into the lounge room, her bag filled with tech slungover her shoulder.

“ I feel really under-dressed right now,” she admits self conscious wrapping her cardigan (which she’d luckily found in the backseat of her car) around her. She’s still wearing the 3/4 yoga pants and cami she’d been planning to crawl into bed in, having fled her apartment quickly without even considering that turning up to her ex...boyfriend’s?...apartment in her pjs might be a mixed signal. “I wasn’t even thinking,” she admits. “I just...ugh.” Felicity’s eyes widen and her cheeks flush. “Wait, William is in bed right?” She asks dropping her voice to a whisper.

Oliver cocks his head at her. “Yes, why?”

“I mean, is it inappropriate for me to be wearing pyjamas right now?”

“Not if you slept here,” Oliver says quickly, but the quip doesn’t land how he expects, it actually sounds desperate, and Felicity grimaces.

“Oliver-“

“Sorry,” He says apologetically blowing out a breath. “That was purely a matter of fact. Nothing implied.”

Felicity cocks an eyebrow at him. They’ve been doing this for months now. It’s like the most ridiculous game of foreplay.

“Okay maybe a little implied...” he admits.

“Soon. I promise.”

“I know.”

“Okay,” Felicity says clapping her hands together. She takes a seat on his sofa and unpacks her tech. “Bigger fish to fry right now than our relationship. So, what the hell are we going to do?”

Oliver rubs his hands together starting to pace the length of the room and trying to kick his brain into a functional pattern to problem solve. “What do you need to find out where the photo came from?”

“I need a copy of the photo. The actual photo. That way I can scrub the image’s metadata, and try to figure out where it came from, when it was taken...what it was taken with...yada yada. And, given Channel 52 are the ones with the scoop, we know they have it.”

Felicity gives him a wide smile and playfully cracks her knuckles before her fingertips hit her laptop keyboard moving at...well, the speed of Barry really.

“You’re going to hack Channel 52?” Oliver asks.

“It won’t be the first time.”

“Susan?” Oliver enquires, trying to make her name roll off his lips as neutrally as possible.

Felicity nods, grimacing. “Yeah. Turns out that little blip in my moral compass was actually helpful - now I know where to look.” Felicity gives him a reassuring smile. “Oliver, once we have the file, we can go from there.”

Oliver nods. “Is there anything I can do, while you do that?”

She gives him a broad smile. “No. Maybe relax a little? You’re making me nervous with the pacing.”

He stops, settling his hands on his hips. “Do I have time to shower and change while you find the file?”

Felicity nods. “I should have it by the time you are back.”

“There is coffee in the pot and Raisa’s cheese muffins in the fridge. Help yourself.”

“I will. Hurry back.”

“I will,” he says. He leans over the side of the corner sofa to kiss the top of her head tenderly. “Thank you,” he whispers.

“Anytime,” she whispers back.

It takes Felicity a little longer than she expects to hack the servers at channel 52. They’ve improved their security a little since the last time she’d hacked in and while it’s not harder, it’s just a messier process. Ten minutes later Felicity shrugs off her cardigan and flip flops and heads to the kitchen for coffee while her algorithm searches for the photograph and it’s origin.

It’s odd being in Oliver’s space without him, even if he is just in an adjacent room. She pours herself coffee from the pot, and then looks for milk, admiring his meticulously organised fridge. Her fridge is a mess and she know’s the damn sight of it would make that little vein in the side of his neck pulse a little. As she fetches sugar from his cupboard, she smiles widely when she finds a shelf of sugary kid’s cereal at the top even when she knows he hates that stuff vehemently.

“You big softy-“

“Felicity?”

Felicity jumps, clutching her chest as she spins to see William standing only a few feet away, his hair tousled at his crown like his Dad’s does with sleep, his bottom lip wedged between his teeth. He’s wearing pjs adorned with baseballs and he looks so young standing there bleary eyed. In fact he looks a little distressed and she moves towards him instinctively without the faintest idea what to do.

“Hey there,” Felicity says with a nervous yet comfortingly smile at him. Gosh she hasn’t seen him properly in weeks and it catches her how alike that look on his face is to the one she’d just seen on Oliver’s minutes ago. “Is everything okay Kiddo?”

Will shakes his head, arms hugged against his chest. “Where is...?” He wants to call him Oliver, like he had been doing over the past few days to prod his father a little, but he’s embarrassed to say it in front of her. She’s so nice, she knows lots of cool things about computers, sci-fi and comic books, and she might not like him if she knows that he’s been purposely trying to push his Dad’s buttons. “...Dad?”

Felicity smiles at him again. “He’s in the shower.”

Will nods and turns back toward his bedroom, embarrassed a little, and that’s when he sees the large screen tv and the Channel 52 new bulletin (now on repeat) with Oliver’s face all over it.

“Is there anything I can help with?” Felicity asks nervously following Will, and it admittedly takes her longer than it should - her brain foggy as she had no idea what to say to William- to realise he’s just seen the breaking news about his father being outed as the Green Arrow.

“Oh no,” Will says, and upon realising what’s wrong, Felicity has to agree.

“Yeah.” Oh god, this is bad. Oliver probably wanted to prepare William for this and she’s thoughtlessly-

“Can you fix it?” William asks looking up at her. And okay, it’s not a huge height difference, he’s tall for a twelve year old and she’s short, but the weightiness of him looking up at her and asking her for reassurance gives her a strange sense of...rightness?

“I am going to try...” Felicity tells him earnestly, “really really hard to fix this Will. I am going to try to make this all okay.”

William nods slowly, like he wants to believe her, but her computer beeps and she’s far too on edge to ignore it. As if on cue, Oliver appears from his bedroom, dressed in blue jeans and a grey tee shirt the words, “Where are we at?” out of his mouth before he notices Will.

An awkward moment passes between all of them, it’s almost comical as they look between each other all so out of their depth, before Oliver turns to William, his demeanour softening. “You okay Kiddo?”

He’d only said goodnight to him an hour or so ago.

“I fell asleep reading. had another nightmare,” Will tells him reluctantly his eyes fixed on the news screen. “I thought being the Green Arrow was meant to be a big secret?”

Felicity notes the air of dissent in William’s voice that hadn’t been there when he was talking to her. Oliver grimaces, pressing his lips together firmly, buying himself a moment to put the right words together.

“Felicity is helping me figure it out,” Oliver tells William. “That’s why she’s here.”

“She’s not sleeping over?” Will asks, his head cocked in Felicity’s direction. She’s certainly dressed for a sleepover.

Oliver blows out a surprised breath. It isn’t the first time William has asked after Felicity - Oliver had explained that Felicity was very important to him - but it is the first time in this capacity, and that’s a whole can of worms a father of five months isn’t prepared to open with his pre-teen son.

“Do you have any cocoa?” Felicity asks cheerfully, quickly redirecting the conversation by pointedly ignoring the question as she heads for the kitchen again. “You know, for the nightmare? Or chocolate? Chocolate works well too. I learnt that from Professor Lupin when Harry keeps passing out in Prisoner of Azkaban and it’s surprisingly It’s true! JK Rowling really is a genius! I-mean,-maybe-not-in-the-traditional-sense-“

“Fe-lic-ity...”

“Hmm?” She asks wide eyed at Oliver. Oh thank god he caught her spiral. William looks at her with a look crossed between surprise and interest.

“There is some cocoa in the pantry,” Oliver deadpans.

“Great,” Felicity says brightly with a smile to Will. “Then, why don’t you head back to bed and I will make you some cocoa? Trust me, you’ll feel way better.”

“Thank you,” Oliver tells her with an appreciative smile. He places a hand on William’s shoulder directing the boy back towards his bedroom.

“You want to tell me about the nightmare?” Oliver asks once they are in the privacy of Will’s room.

He shoves his hands into his jean pockets as Will climbs under the covers and tries to make himself comfortable.

Bad man or not, he wants to be there for Will. He just hopes this time Will’s nightmares don’t include him as the enemy because he probably doesn’t have that in him right now.

“We were on the boat again,” William admits in a small voice, and the confession has Oliver’s heart stuttering in its beat.

Oliver exhales and frowns as he takes a seat beside Will on the edge of his bed. “I sometimes have that dream too.”

“You do?”

Oliver nods. “From time to time.”

“Even though you’re the Green Arrow?”

It’s a loaded question, and Oliver hesitates. “Even though I am the Green Arrow,” he agrees. He almost says ‘because I am the Green Arrow’ which he is sure is probably more accurate but less comforting.

“How do I make it stop?” Will asks and it’s an incredibly vulnerable question, one that actually lets Oliver in.

Oliver’s hand settles on William’s knee comfortingly. “I honestly have no idea, Bud. But, whenever you have it, you can always talk to me about it, anytime.” Oliver gives him a smile. “And we’ll make some cocoa and take a few minutes to just breathe. Felicity tends to be right about these things.”

A couple of minutes later Felicity is knocking on the door jam with her elbow, juggling a mug of cocoa in each hand, seeking permission to step inside.

Oliver nods and Felicity moves towards them, handing a cup to Will with a smile and then Oliver in turn.

“It’s my Bubbe’s secret recipe,” she tells them proudly. “My Mom used to make it for me as a kid. It’s guaranteed to help you feel better and nod right back off to sleep again.”

“Thank you, Felicity,” Will tells her and he takes a sip.

“My pleasure.” Felicity gives Oliver a rallying look, telling him to take all the time he needs. “I’m going to get back to work. Goodnight William.”

He gives her a small wave. “Goodnight Felicity.”

Felicity pulls the sliding door to Will’s room over as she leaves, leaving the father and son to their cocoa.

“Is it good?” Oliver asks watching Will take another sip.

“Yeah, it’s pretty good,” Will tells him, licking his lips skeptically. “Why?”

Oliver smiles. “Felicity is a genius....”

William puts two and two together. “But she can’t cook?”

Oliver laughs. “No. She’s kitchen challenged,” he says taking a drink from his mug of cocoa; and he’s pleasantly surprised. It tastes damn good. Probably full of sugar, and she’s definitely added more than the recommended amount of cocoa, but it actually helps. And Oliver can see from the look on Will’s face he likes it too.

“So it’s okay to tell you about the nightmares even in the middle of the night? Like past midnight on a work night?” Will asks him.

Oliver nods. “Anytime Bud, day or night.”

They sit in silence for a while, a comfortable one, both sipping at their cocoa.

“I’m starting to feel better,” Will says after drinking just over half, and holds his mug out to Oliver to take. “Felicity really is a genius.”

“She sure is,” Oliver says, getting to his feet so Will can stretch out under the covers. He places Will’s mug on the bedside table. “In case you want to finish it.”

“Oli-“ William stops and clears his throat. “Dad?”

“Yeah Bud?” Oliver asks, slightly surprised that Will had changed his tact, but not wanting to spook the kid, keeps his tone as even as possible. Will seems to have a serious sense of preservation that Oliver’s pretty sure is genetic.

“I like Felicity. It’d be cool if she hung out here more.”

Oliver smiles. “I’d like her to be around more too, Kiddo. Now, try to get some sleep okay? You’re safe now. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” Will nods, leaning over to switch off his bedside light as the sliding door closes behind Oliver.

Oliver finds Felicity sitting at the breakfast bar in the kitchen her eyes focused on her laptop. She looks up as he approaches her and jumps off her stool.

“I am so sorry...” she tells him in an urgent whisper her hands fidgeting together nervously. “I panicked and I got weird...I started talking about Harry Potter-“

But Oliver cuts her off with an unexpected kiss. His hands slide gently along the sides of her face pulling her close, and he holds her like she is the most precious thing in the world. His kiss is soft and almost hesitant at the start, giving her the option to refuse, but she doesn’t. She’s momentarily stunned; they’d made a strictly we-need-to-stop-torturing-each-other-with-makeout-sessions-we-can’t-finish rule after the night William had gotten sick five months ago.

Even a couple of days ago when he’d asked her over for dinner, for company, she’d still felt like William and Oliver needed more time. But, right now, his lips gently slanting across hers, his fingertips holding her face ever so gently, his body moving, pressing against her’s- all of it is too much to deny. She’s done. She’s giving in.

“What was that for?” She asks in a low voice, conscious now more than ever that William is in the next room.

“For being you,” he tells her quietly. “He hasn’t opened up to me in weeks.”

She smiles, shakes her head. “That wasn’t me... it was us. Together.”

Oliver beams at her. Does that mean what he think it means...?

Felicity responses by kisses him back more ardently, sliding her tongue into the seam of his mouth, making him groan quietly. One hand drops away from her cheek, moves to her waist, pulling her hips against his, removing all distance (not that there had honestly been much) between them. She arches into the line of his body, pressing her breasts against him and grins into their kiss as his passion intensifies.

He breaks away from her lips, and she finds herself wrapping her arms around his neck to hold him tighter, his lips trailing down her jaw and to her ear.

“Come to bed with me?” He whispers.

“We need to focus...” she replies, but it doesn’t stop her from clasping the neck of his tee shirt in her fist, pulling him impossibly closer.

“I am focused,” he says, and he reaches up and runs his thumb against her flushed bottom lip. “I could be about to lose everything. My focus is exactly where it needs to be - with you and William.”

She hesitates - takes one whole minute to hold his gaze, the palm of her right hand sliding against his scruffy cheek before she traces his hairline from the top of his forehead, down his temple and side of his face. He doesn’t break eye contact with her for a second, and as they share this moment, she weights up her priorities - going to bed with him vs. an update on the photograph. The answer she lands upon is selfish and she knows the moment she smiles back at him and his embrace tightens that she has zero regrets.

“I love you,” she tells him.

It’s the answer Oliver needs, his lips crashing into hers again, and she kisses him right back. And then he’s letting her go, untangling himself from her, all except for her hand, which he takes firmly knotting his fingers between hers, his thumb stroking against her own as he leads her across the kitchen and towards his bedroom.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part 2 is a smutty and fluffy work in progress that I may or may not completely abandon depending on 6x03! Apologies for any atrocious editing, I am still working from my phone and notes drives me crazy! 
> 
> Please leave me a comment before you go, and if you see something you want to read, feel free to send me a prompt!


	3. Home Run (6x03)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **#3 Home Run( 6x03)**  
>  Olicity reunites (yep, sex). And more Oliver, Felicity and William family fluff.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know there are a few versions on this around already but here is my take. 
> 
> Unbeta’d and edited, and written on my phone. Sorry in advance. Hopefully the smut makes up for it?

 

**#3 Home Run( 6x03)**

_Olicity reunites (yep, sex). And more Oliver, Felicity and William family fluff._

 

Felicity withdraws her lips from Oliver’s slowly, relishing in the way his fingers dance along her shoulder and down her spine in repeated patterns up and down her skin, his eyelids closed and heavy, his body relaxed.

“So that happened...” she teases, and it elicits a chuckle from him, his eyelids fluttering open.

“Again,” he says, chasing her kiss, lifting his head from the pillow, his other hand stroking her cheek softly as he tips her lips back towards him. “And again...and again?”

She laughs, rubbing her nose against his tenderly, before rising up on her knees, dipping her hand into the drawer of her bedside table for another condom. He watches her naked form move and it makes him grin. She’s so fucking gorgeous and he loves her so damn much.

Felicity turns back to him, using her teeth to carefully rip open the packaging. She gives him a bold look as she moves towards him again, her dishevelled wavy hair falling into her face as she ducks her head to kiss him softly and throws her other knee over his waist to straddle him.

He moans as she grinds against him bare; god, he’s so ready for her again already. They’d already made love twice, once downstairs before they’d migrated up to her bedroom for another round, but the heat between them is damn near insatiable after all this time, all barriers removed.

She takes him in one hand, stroking him once, twice, before sheathing him and discarding the wrapper with a salacious smile. She then leans over to place an open mouthed kiss against the Chinese characters tattooed on his lower abdomen.

He fists his hands her her hair, enjoying her lips on his skin as she kisses a trail across the ridge of his abs -the ones she so ardently told him she admired and has made a display of admiring since she pulled his shirt off - up to his chest.

She kisses him passionately again, and then he’s moving, sitting up, banding an arm around her waist tightly to pull her against his chest. He rocks against her, his erection gliding against her core, teasing them both. Felicity groans into his mouth, snaking her arms around his neck, lifting herself a bit higher in anticipation, as she pushes her tongue into his mouth.

He’s missed this, these kisses from her, languid and sensual and all consuming. He breaks their kiss with a smile, his forehead pressed to hers, and she heaves a deep relaxing breath, taking hold of him in one hand and then guiding him into her and sinking down inch by inch.

She’s still wet, her core hot and silken and full primed to take him whole without protest, which she does, producing a stuttered breath from them both. She holds there, completely still, full and surrounded by him, cherished by him, as he holds her face in his palms.

She licks at her parted lips as she sighs; he feels like home, and it feels like home having him inside her.

“Why did we wait so long?” She says, and it’s lighthearted, a joke, a moment of brevity in this moment (okay it’s been at least an hour or so) of them reconnecting. It’s purely Felicity, and the happiness she feels about them moving forward finally as a couple shines back at him so brightly with such warmth it has his smiling beatifically.

And then, she’s moving, undulating against him as she starts to ride him slowly. He slants his lips against hers, their kisses shallow as their pace quickens. Felicity’s back arches, and Oliver’s hands clutch at her waist, one woven around her, kneading the cheeks of her ass encouragingly, the other spanning the small of her back above the slope of her spine and her implant scar, holding her steady. She pulls away from his lips with a soft cry, her head cast to the roof, as he buries himself deep inside her again and again and again...

“I’ve missed you,” she pants, her eyes closed, her hands clutching through the strands of his hair.

“I’ve missed you too,” he breathes into the column of her neck before dragging his teeth across the skin of her collarbone, making her cry out “oh god....Oliver!” as he hits that particular spot inside her.

He knows she’s close, he can feel her her starting to quake in his arm, and she starts to clench around him, and then her hands are on his chest and she’s pushing him back into the mattress, his head falling short of the pillow, his hands grasping at her hips as he meets each stroke she rides of his hard cock inside her with a grunt.

The sounds he’s making are sexy as hell and she leans forward a little, riding him harder, pushing him deeper, her hands on his chest, her hair falling in curtains around her face.

“Fuck, Felicity,” he moans and then he reaches up to caress her cheek. But instead, Felicity sucks his thumb into her mouth, and god that makes him impossibly harder as he strokes inside her and she bites down on his skin.

“Honey,” she breathes, “I need...”

But he’s on it, and with a yelp and fit of giggles she’s on her back, Oliver not slipping out of her for a moment. He kisses her softly, cradled in the juncture of her hips, her knees raised to his hips and continues on, driving deep until they both come, Felicity’s nails scratching into his shoulder with a shout as the orgasm washes over her, his groan as he finishes, spilling into the condom hot in her ear.

Once he has his breath, her pulls her close, his arms hooked under her shoulders, and presses his lips to her forehead, nuzzling her.

“Do you have to go soon?” She asks breathily and she tries to be as neutral as possible because even though she wants to clean up and then snuggle back in bed with him, fall asleep with his arms around her, she knows that he has to go home to William.

Oliver nods and kisses her softly. “I told Will I wouldn’t be more than an hour or two.”

Oliver presses a kiss to her shoulder as he notes the way her face falls a little, despite her attempt to keep her reaction light and understanding. And he gets it; the thought of leaving her and going home to an empty bed has his heart heavy. He kisses her again, deeply, and Felicity cups his face tenderly prolonging their kiss as she rolls them onto their sides, groaning a little as he slips out of her, completely spent.

“Do you want to come with me?” He asks, propping himself up on one elbow. “Raisa, Will and I are going to celebrate him acing his test with Pizza, ice cream and the rockets game. And I am sure he’d like to thank you in person.”

“I’d love to,” she tells him with a broad smile and Oliver beams back at her in return. “Can I have a few minutes to clean up first?” She asks running a hand through her messy hair.

Oliver chuckles and with another kiss nods in agreement.

*

“You okay?” Oliver asks, reading Felicity’s nervous expression as he maneuverers the key of his apartment into the lock one handed, the other entwined with Felicity’s.

Felicity gives him a bright smile, hands tightly clutching at the shopping bag full of snacks she’d insisted they stop to buy on the way home. If the Queen men were going to make her watch a ball game, she was going to eat as many tasty treats her (and Will’s) stomach would allow.

“I’m perfect,” she says happily.

“You are,” Oliver agrees, leaning over to kiss her softly.

“William knows about us right? You said you’d explained stuff?” She asks pushing her glasses up her nose nervously.

Oliver nods. “I told William how important you are to me, and explained that we used to live together, and had been going to get married until I screwed everything up. But now I want to be your boyfriend again and he was supportive of the idea as long as it came with some visits to the museum and comic book store on the weekends.”

Felicity grins. “Man after my own heart,” she says with a grin. “I obviously mean William; ‘cos you know, you’ve already got... it.” She draws the t out, making a point of cocking her head at him adorably.

Oliver beams at her, abandoning the key in the lock to close the distance between them, backing her into the wall of his apartment building corridor, where he kisses her deeply, one hand gently holding the column of her neck so he can angle her lips towards his.

She licks her lips when he parts from her; god she’ll never tire from that taste of him, her home.

And then with a nod from Felicity, he is turning the key and popping open the door. He holds the front door open for her, letting her step through first, prompting looks of surprise and smiles from Raisa and William as they get to their feet from their seats on the sofa in front of TV.

“Hey Felicity,” William says with a wave and a tone that says he’s happy to see her. “You’re just in time. Raisa’s amazing pizza is almost ready and the game is about to start.”

“Hey guys. I hope there is space for one more?” Felicity asks nervously sniffing the air as Oliver takes the shopping bag of chocolate, popcorn and ice cream from her and into the kitchen to put away. “Raisa it smells delicious.”

“There is always room for you Felicity,” Raisa says happily pulling Felicity into a hug. As Oliver’s confidant, and a VIP name on their former wedding guest list, Raisa knows what this means. “I even made an Hawaiian one just for you at Oliver’s request.”

“Thank you,” Felicity says graciously, before turning to Will. “Congratulations on acing your test,” Felicity tells him proudly, holding up a hand for a high five. “I knew you’d crush it.”

“I had the best tutor,” William says with a large smile as he slaps his palm against hers enthusiastically. “Are you a Rockets fan?”

Felicity smiles. “An honorary one,” she tells him. “Though I don’t know a lot about the sport, I do love space so the Rockets seem like my jam. Your Dad did try to teach me once, but it didn’t go as planned.”

Felicity winks at Oliver (couch sex) and he chuckles as he steps back into the conversation.

“I think it’s about time we turn Felicity into a Rockets fan,” Oliver says to William, with a stage whisper. “Then we won’t have to fight for the remote on game nights.”

William nods. “I can teach you the rules,” William decides with a smile at Felicity. “If you can help me with my math homework next week?”

Felicity looks to Oliver for reassurance, that it’s okay to make plans with William with their newly minted relationship, and Oliver gives her the same look he had the other day, one that tells her without question or hesitation that his answer is an resounding yes; he wants William and Felicity more involved in each other’s lives.

“You’ve got yourself a deal,” Felicity tells William with a broad smile. “Now, do I get a ball cap? I look great in ball caps.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always - would love to know what you think! Leave me a comment or prompt! I’d really love to hear more from my incredible readers!


	4. Family (6x07)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Family (6x07): Oliver and Thea chat at the hospital after thanksgiving dinner, and later at home Oliver and Felicity discuss the trial their family is about to face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: sorry! Weekly episode fics got away from me! I actually have little snippets from 6x04, 6x05 and 6x06 in drafts, but 6x07 was easier to write so it got pushed to the top. 
> 
> I have assumed that shortly after the ep finished, Diggle went home to his own family. So, let’s roll with that!

 

**#4 Family (6x07)**

 

William tries to stifle a yawn, hiding it behind the sleeve of his jumper. He’s helping Felicity pack up the makeshift Thanksgiving feast they’d brought Thea and Felicity catches the tail end of yawn giving him a knowing smile as she tightens the lid on the stuffing. William frowns; he doesn’t want to go home yet, this is the first proper thanksgiving he’s had in two years and he’s pretty stoked to finally spend time and properly meet his cool Auntie Thea that Felicity and Oliver have been telling him about for months.

But Felicity’s spent enough time with her boyfriend’s son over the past few weeks to pick up on his tell. And once the tiredness sets in, so does William’s grumpiness. And then so does Oliver’s. And then it’s all a bit too much to handle.

“I think it’s time we head home,” Felicity tells Oliver who is standing at Thea’s bedside chatting away while Felicity and Will pack the last tray of food into the cooler bag.

And even though Oliver’s so not ready to let Thea out of his sight just yet, he can see sleep sinking into William’s limbs as the boy stifles another yawn, and he nods agreement. Will’s fading fast, and Dr Schwartz had warned that Thea would too given she was still incredibly weak.

Felicity sidles into Oliver’s embrace snaking an arm around his hip, squeezing him close. “Why don’t I take William home, and you stay and keep Thea company a little while longer?”

“I’d like that,” Thea says happily to her brother, prompting a nod and a smile from him.

“Sounds good,” Oliver says and leans over to kiss Felicity softly before she smiles and moves towards Thea for a hug.

“I will be back to see you tomorrow,” Felicity tells Thea, wrapping her arms around her tightly, and holding her close for a moment, making Thea smile.

“I’d like that too,” Thea says brightly as Felicity pulls away. “Can you also bring some nail polish and good shampoo?” She asks, her cheeks flushing a little as she runs a pale hand through her limp hair. “My hair feels pretty gross.”

Felicity nods and smiles. “Of course, I’ve got you covered,” she says stepping out of the way, moving close to Oliver again allowing Will to come forward.

“I am glad you woke up Auntie Thea,” Will tells her, hugging Thea awkwardly because he’s not really a hugger, before stepping back, stuffing his hands nervously in his pockets. “Dad and Felicity were really worried.”

Oliver huffs a laugh, Felicity tucked under his arm, her fingertips pressed against his chest as she smiles as Will’s tender omission.

“We all were,” Oliver tells her as he gives William a comforting smile.

Thea blushes again. “Sorry about that,” she says. And she is. She feels a bit guilty if she’s honest; they’d all been so relieved to see her that Oliver and Felicity had both cried.

Felicity claps her hands together. “Okay, I will see you tomorrow,” she says to Thea, and then turns to Oliver, giving him another quick kiss, “And we will see you at home.” She motions to Will to get him to help pick up the bags of leftover food. “We’ll drop this off at the soup kitchen around the corner on our way home.”

“Drive safe,” Oliver tells her and Felicity beams back at him. “Always,” she says, one hand on Will’s shoulder as he leads them out of the room.

Both Thea and Oliver watch them leave, and when Oliver turns back to Thea, she’s got a large sappy smile on her face as she watches him.

“What?” He asks nervously, scratching his head, and Thea’s smile grows.

“The three of you are so freaking cute.”

Oliver huffs a laugh, taking a seat in the hard plastic chair by her bed. He shrugs off his jacket and loosens  
his tie, Thea still watching him intently.

“You look good Ollie,” Thea tells him as he makes himself comfortable, uncuffing the sleeves of his shirt and rolling them up to his elbows. “Happy.”

How he looks good he’ll never know; the past couple of days have been a mother(fucker), but yeah, he is pretty happy if he’s being honest given this very room was just filled with the four people he loves the most.

“I guess I look good for someone who got arrested 48hours ago,” Oliver reasons, and Thea smiles. “But, despite everything, I am happy and thankful.”

“Well, you do look good for a Dad-slash-Boyfriend-slash-Mayor-slash-Vigilante-slash-Unconvicted Criminal-“ Oliver makes a face, “and my favorite, slash-devoted brother.” She places her hand over his as it rests on the bed beside her. “And while we’re being thankful-“ Oliver smiles, “Thank you for not giving up on me. I know you or Felicity were here every day, and that means a lot.”

“I would never give up on you,” he tells her earnestly squeezing her hand. “I would do anything and everything in my power to look after you, Thea.”

And she knows it’s true; he always has. He’d waged wars with bad guys and sold his soul (cough League of Assassins) to save her. Thea would never doubt that Oliver would always be there for her.

“Did I mention how glad I am to have you back?” He says, swallowing the lump in his throat. He’s spent so many hours over the last six months at her bedside willing her to wake up that now she was sitting here, a small weak recovering shell of her former self yet still here and alive and awake...he was so...happy.

Thea blushes a little and sends him a knowing smile. “I am just glad I woke up in a world where without me, you had Felicity, William, and John by your side. And one good thing about this whole long nap is I am going to have a truckload of new tv shows to catch up on Netflix while I readjust into,” her voice deepens spookily as she teases, “ _the land of the living_.” Thea then frowns as she realizes she missed her favorite season. “Damn, I missed summer. I _love_ summer.”

Oliver laughs. “It was stupidly warm. You didn’t miss a thing. The aircon went out at the bunker giving Felicity endless grief, René and Curtis complained a lot as I made them train in the heat, and I insisted William eat a lot of salad which he did not enjoy,” he tells her with a wink trying to make her feel better, but she scoffs and folds her arms against her chest.

“I bet I actually missed a whole lot of you and Felicity doing your _will you or won’t you dance_ ,” she says arching her eyebrow. “And _that_ is always worth being around for.”

Oliver grins. “Are we really that predictable?”

Thea shrugs, giving him that smug I know you look that she has reserved for all matters Felicity since their breakup.

“Yes. You’re both head over heels for each other. Always have been, always will be. And, I know you both exceptionally well; losing Samantha would have devastated William, and you and Felicity would have waited. But, side note, I am very glad that waiting is over because you look very happy and how damn cute are William and Felicity together?”

Oliver laughs. “Very,” he tells her proudly. “But I am so out of my depth. I understand about half of the conversations they have about math, science and video games. I just make food and pay the Internet bill while they get on with it.”

Thea laughs, a full-bodied happy laugh, and wow, he’s so glad to have her back.

“Ollie, you need to actually put a ring on that girl’s finger and this time make sure she gets all the way through the vows to the becoming your wife part,” she tells him pointing at him directly.

Oliver grimaces, she’s right. And it will happen. He’s never dated or been with Felicity for the sake of just being with her. Marrying her has always been his end game. And this time around is no different. He’d marry her tomorrow if he could. But he’s not about to tell Thea that; even if she already suspects it.

“I don’t think a diamond ring is going to make up for the _half a million_ of angel investor money Felicity used to bail me out of jail,” he tells her soberly, leaning forward in his chair, elbows resting on his knees as he lowers his head into his hands.

He still feels awful about it.

Thea gapes at him. “Geeze. They realize you aren’t rich anymore right?”

Oliver chuckles. “I do okay Speedy. But I didn’t have half a mill cash sitting around for bail. And I don’t have it to replenish Felicity’s startup.”

Thea smiles. “Honestly? That seems like bad Team Arrow accounting now I think about it. You guys are kind of lucky after all these years that this is only the second-“

“ _Third_ ,” Oliver corrects. “I have been accused of being the Hood, the Arrow and Green Arrow.” He almost sounds proud and Thea grins.

“Well, I can’t help that people keep figuring out your secret identity...but I can help you pay Felicity back.” Thea’s brow knits, “I mean I still have Malcolm’s inheritance right?”

Oliver nods, and then, they both remember that Samantha wasn’t the only casualty on Lian Yu. Malcolm had also died on the island trading his life for Thea’s.

“I’m sorry Malcolm’s dead Speedy,” Oliver tells her reading the pensive frown that crosses her face. It’s hard to know exactly what more to say or how to say it - it never got easier talking about the loss of their parents. Thea, like him, was now truly an orphan.

Thea grimaces a thank you and heaves a heavy sigh. It was actually kind of a relief; Malcolm now had no control over her life. When she’d quit her job at City Hall and had taken some time off and away from Star City, the constant concern that Malcolm would just show up and cause chaos, or that he was watching her had always been in the back of her mind. But, she’d had enough pain to last a lifetime, all three of her parents making heavy sacrifices so she or Oliver could live. And she can’t explain it properly, her head is still very foggy, but Malcolm’s final act to save her had changed her perspective a little.

“Unfortunately no matter how fucked up Malcolm was, he was still my father you know? And he died to save me so he had to care for me, even if he had super fucked up ways to show it before stepping on a _landmine_.”

Oliver nods. “I get it Speedy,” he tells her softly. “He loved you a lot...and at the end of the day, he helped me find Chase. Malcolm was a complicated man.”

Thea smiles. “I still can’t believe you cut off his hand.”

Oliver frowns. “It was not my finest moment.”

“Well Malcolm had that effect on people,” she tells him earnestly. Because he did. She’d fantasized about running him through with a sword many a time after he’d sold Oliver out to Damien Darhk and William had been kidnapped. And while that might be small leftover vestiges of bloodlust bubbling up to the service, she also thought it was very much environmental. Malcolm was evil however you cut it, but he earned her respect saving her life.

“Speaking of fatherhood,” Thea presses on, “how is everything going with William? How are you coping as a first-time dad to a sassy pre-teen?”

Oliver smiles modestly. He can’t pretend that he knows even a tenth of what he needs to be a good parent, but he’s come a long way since the island and the initial terrifying thoughts of being a sole permanent full-time guardian.

Oliver leans back in his chair. “We’ve had a pretty long adjustment period, but the last few weeks have been better. Raisa has been a godsend - she says she sees a lot of me in William, and I think that has helped me approach things differently to how I thought I would, or how I was in the beginning when I thought everything had to be perfect.”

“Oh, I have missed Raisa,” Thea laments with a smile. “I hope I get to see her. I haven’t seen her since your engagement party.”

“You will. She’ll be up here tomorrow morning fussing over you, mark my words. She helps out with William a few nights and mornings a week making sure he eats and does his homework when Felicity and I can’t be there.”

“Of course! The bunker! How is juggling Arrow life _and_ Dad life? _And_ Mayor life? God, it just sounds exhausting. Any chance a mild-mannered Oliver Queen doppelgänger has turned up from Earth 32 or _whatever_ to help out?”

Oliver laughs. “Sometimes I wish that was the case,” He says scratching a palm across his jaw. “But, I have actually retired as Green Arrow.” Thea’s mouth drops open and Oliver continues with, “ _Sort of_. John is the Green Arrow now, but he needs to take some time off, so I will be back temporarily until he has the all clear on a persistent injury.”

Thea cocks her head at Oliver. "John is rubbish at archery," she says and Oliver chuckles again. "Felicity designed him a cross-bow, and he's pretty good with it." 

“Wow,” Thea breathes, her head spinning a little. “I really missed a lot in six months. What else has happened?”

Oliver decides to leave the topic of evil Laurel for another day and heads straight for the fluffy stuff.

Oliver smiles. “Barry and Iris are getting married next week in Central City. Felicity and I are both in the bridal party.”

Thea scrunches her nose and grins. “Awww, I am very happy for them. Did Curtis and Paul patch things up?” She asks hopefully.

Oliver shakes his head. “No, unfortunately. Their divorce has been finalized though.”

Thea sighs. “Poor Curtis,” She says before her brow knits. “Wait, if you aren’t the Green Arrow anymore, why did they still arrest you?”

Oliver grimaces. “Because...FBI,” he says with an exasperated sigh, tapping his fingers on the arm of his plastic hospital chair.

Thea frowns. “Oh right,” she says, kind of mocking her brother’s answer. “ _The FBI_. no biggie. Ollie, your life is so complicated.”

“Speedy, I kind of like it that way,” he tells her with a wide grin that prompts a chuckle from Thea.

“You always have,” she says proudly.

There is a knock at the door, and Dr Schwartz appears with a small smile on her face.

“Sorry Oliver, I’d like Thea to get some rest.”

Oliver nods and makes to stand, but Thea rolls her eyes and pouts in that way she’ll never grow out of. “I have literally been asleep for six months. I feel pretty rested...”

Oliver grins at her as he leans over to kiss her cheek. “For once in your life, don’t argue,” he tells her softly and then she pouts teasingly at him.

“We still have so much to talk about,” she whines. “I want to know everything....like how is Quentin? And Donna? And Lyla and JJ? Has Felicity moved in-?”

Oliver chuckles. “We have plenty of time for all of that. Later,” he reassures her. "We don't have to cram six months into one evening."

But Thea, forever her mother’s daughter, won’t take no for an answer. And she ducks her head around her brother’s looming form to ask Dr Schwartz, “If I promise to rest...to stop _talking_...could he stay just a little longer? I could really use the company.”

Dr Schwartz considers the question for a moment, but the bleeding heart look Thea Queen is giving her, the late hour, and the fact she’s a little sad for missing Thanksgiving with her own family, has her agreeing.

“One more hour,” she tells them firmly. “Then your Mayoral privilege runs out for tonight Oliver.”

“Thank you,” Oliver agrees with a gracious smile, and Dr Schwartz leaves again, closing the door behind her.

“Where were we?” Thea asks with a big grin.

“I have something to show you,” Oliver tells her proudly pulling his phone from his pocket.

He scrolls through his photo album, quickly locating the photographs and video he’d taken last week and then hits play on his favorite - the full video of William and Felicity launching the bottle rocket on the roof at home.

“Oh Ollie,” Thea says proudly, her hand gripping at his as it holds the phone towards her so she can see. “He’s such a little nerd!”

Oliver laughs loudly, the sound rumbling through his chest happily.

“Isn’t it amazing?” He says to her.

And she nods tearily because that look on his face, the smile crinkling at his eyes, the pride coloring his features as he turns the phone back to himself and hits play again, right now is pure joy.

“It’s the best,” she agrees and squeezes his hand.

*

It’s after eleven when Oliver gets home, arriving to find Felicity dozing on the sofa dressed for bed with the lamplight on and the tv on low, recaps of the parade in Gotham playing on the late news. Felicity shakes herself awake as he closes the door, and sits up smiling at him as he approaches her and drops into the couch cushion beside her.

“Hey,” He says pressing a kiss to her forehead as he wraps an arm around her, pulling her close to his chest. “Why are you still up? You must be exhausted.”

He knows Felicity didn’t get much sleep last night as she had been in the bunker trying to track down as much information as she could on what the FBI had on him. However, she’d come up empty.

Felicity stifles a yawn with the back of her hand. “I wasn’t sure if you wanted me to stay or not? If you felt like company after everything.”

He tips her chin up towards him with his forefinger so he can look her in the eye. “It goes without saying that I always want to you stay.”

She smiles, pushing up on her knees beside him so she can angle in for a proper kiss. She cups his face gently, and his hands rest on her elbows, holding her close as she holds him close. Their kiss depends and Felicity crawls into his lap, seating herself on his thighs as their liplock continues.

Without warning, Oliver pulls back, licking his lips.  
  
“I don’t know how much time we have,” he tells her softly, worry crossing his face.

“You aren’t going to jail,” she tells him, her hands dropping away from his face.

Oliver clears his throat sensing he’s ruined the mood, and then stupidly he presses on because he needs her to hear him, hear his fears.

“We can’t know that,” he tells her. “Felicity I am actually _guilty_...”

Felicity tuts at him, shaking her head. “We have been here before Oliver and I would wager we will be here again. But, I just got you back. They aren’t taking you from me. We can fight and beat this.”

Oliver frowns. “Billy’s name is on the list of murder charges...” he says softly. It’s something he had been avoiding acknowledging, and it’s been eating him up since he’d found out.

Felicity softens and reaches up to take his face in her hands again. “I know Oliver,” she says gently. “Listen to me...you didn’t kill Billy.”

Oliver squeezes his eyes closed for a moment, trying to let her words soothe him; but they don’t. The noise in his head, his fears, intensify.

He swallows hard and opens his eyes, finding the look she is giving him, soft, tender and loving absolutely crushing.

“As Mayor I publicly declared the Green Arrow to be Billy Malone’s murderer. I am the Green Arrow.”

“Oliver, everyone knows Chase admitted to tricking the Green Arrow into it. Agent Watson is just trying to rattle you. She knows you are... _were_ the Green Arrow and she knows Billy and I were involved. She is trying to get to you, please for William’s sake...for my sake...don’t let her.”

Oliver exhales with defeat, and Felicity recognizes it instantly.

“She knows too much for me to get away with this again.”

Felicity sighs heavily, dropping her hands from his face again. “ _Oliver_ ,” she says bluntly, pushing out of his lap and getting to her feet. She needs him to push past this and work on a plan with her. She needs him to figure out exactly what Watson knows so they can prepare to refute it, not prepare to lose. “I don’t want to do this right now.”

Oliver follows her, getting to his feet as she stalks across the room to collect her phone and handbag, making to leave.

“Felicity I am trying to be realistic-“ he says a little more loudly than he should given William’s in the next room, but he needs her to listen to him. The stakes are too high.

“You aren’t,” she hisses angrily, her own voice loud. “You’re defeated already and we haven’t even started! It nearly killed me with worry the last time you got arreste, Oliver! And for all intents and purposes, it actually "killed" Roy. I can’t do this again if you are going to doubt yourself.”

He hopes that doesn’t mean exactly what she’s just said, and the look she is giving him, like the words slipped out before she’d considered them, it hurts them both. God, first John, _now_ Felicity...

“Felicity,” he tries to reason. “I have to think about William...and you...”

“Then fight for us!” She tells his fiercely. “Because the moment you start considering how deeply she has you, that’s the moment we lose Oliver.”

But he just stands there numbly and she sighs. She clutches the strap of her handbag tightly and pushes past him, heading for the front door. And the déjà vu washes over him. Last time he’d heard her ultimatum and done nothing. He won’t lose her again.

“Please don’t go...” he chokes, turning towards her, stopping her just a few foot from the door.

Felicity turns back to him, her arms wrapped around her middle like she is trying to stop her insides from spilling out. And maybe she is.

“I have to believe you are going to win this,” she tells him fiercely. “I have watched you do so many impossible things over the years. This one is a _cakewalk_ in comparison.”

This is it, he is going to lose her again if he doesn’t make the right move.

“... _Marry me_?”

Felicity takes a step closer a look of total bewilderment on her face. “What?” She croaks.

Oliver stands firm, back straight, his face breaking into a smile. That had certainly not been the move he’d been intending to make, but now...he’s pretty sure it is the rightest move he’s ever made.

“Marry me.” He repeats. “Felicity, will you _marry me_?”

From the crack in the nearby bedroom door, a crack William had opened discretely trying to listen to the raised voices of his Dad and Felicity only a couple of minutes ago, William squeaks out, “Please?” startling both of them.

Figuring he’s done now he’s revealed himself, William pushes the door open further and steps into the lounge. This is the strangest moment of all of their lives.

“Why?” Felicity asks William nervously, and to his credit, he smiles back with the most Oliver smile she’s ever seen him give, and it makes her melt.

“Because Dad loves you,” William says like it's the most obvious fact in the world. “And he’s a better Dad when you are around,” Oliver’s cheeks color at that because it is shockingly true. “And...” William tries to think of what the boy would say to get the girl in those movies him Mom used to love so much. “...and, I think you might be soulmates.”

Felicity glances to Oliver who has the same incredulous look on his face.

“So your not just doing this to spare me having to testify against you?” She asks him.

Oliver gapes at her. "What? No...I _honestly_ hadn’t even considered that would be the case...” Oliver steps closer to her, closing the distance between them, pulling her against him, and she goes willingly. “Felicity, I love you. And I want to marry you because you mean everything to me and don’t want to waste any more time that we could be building a life together _arguing_ about building a life together-“

Felicity presses her lips to his in a hard kiss, one that softens as he returns it, kissing her deeply, winding his arms around her tightly and not caring at all about the sound of disgust his boy makes.

“Is that a yes?” He asks pulling away from her lips, his forehead resting against her's.

Felicity sinks her tooth into her kiss flushed lip teasingly. “What do you think?” She grins and he’s kissing her again, laughing as she drops her handbag to the floor to wind her arms around his neck.

“Does this mean I might get a little baby brother or sister soon?” Will asks innocently, and the question has them breaking apart, Felicity nervously covering the beard burn around her mouth with her hand.

“Let’s maybe table that conversation for _a_ while Bud,” Oliver tells him with a smile.

And William grins. “That’s not a no,” he says, making both Felicity and Oliver laugh. 

 

 

 


	5. Family Dinner (6x05)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> #4 Family Dinner - 6x05 Felicity stays for dinner with Oliver and William after helping Oliver decide to help Slade.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry - I'm posting episode fics 6x04 to 6x06 out of order...

 

**Family Dinner (6x05)**

_"Are you sure?”_

_“Yeah, I am sure. He’s his father’s son.”_ Felicity's fingers tangle in the buttons of Oliver's henley, and she gives him another happy smile, as her fingertips press against his chest. "So...what’s it going to be?” she asks, her eyebrow arched in question.

Oliver smiles down at her; He had been 100% honest before - he'd been hoping that she'd tell him not to go. But, instead, she'd told him everything he needed to hear...even if it wasn't what he _wanted_ to hear. And that was so Felicity. That was the way this relationship was with them this time; it was so much more real, more supportive, more understanding.

"I guess I better pack," he tells her resolutely and it prompts her to smile at him again because it's damn near impossible in his presence not too.

Realising this might be their last moment together again for a few days Oliver leans in for a soft kiss, his lips entangling with her's gently. The kiss deepens as it continues, Oliver’s hands resting the small of her back as he pulls her close, Felicity’s own palm resting against his jaw tenderly, the other clutching at his shirt for purchase as she presses up on tiptoes to meet his lips. And then, its over, reality sets in, and Felicity takes a step back, her cheerful smile setting Oliver at ease over his decision.

“I guess I should leave you to it then,” she tells him, reaching up to thumb her lipstick from his lips carefully, making sure he's 100% Lady Danger free before leaving the room. But even as she tries to step away, she finds herself clasping at his hand for as long as she can, until their fingers are sliding in opposite directions as she steps backward towards the door.

"Wait, where are you going?" He asks following her, his fingers finding grip against hers again as he moves with her, and Felicity laughs.

It's been incredibly busy over the past few days with all the cloak and dagger from Slade.Oliver cancelled his trip to Central City for Barry's Bachelor Party which also meant that Felicity and Oliver hadn't been able to spend the long weekend together like they'd planned. Felicity had only been back a couple of days and now Oliver was off, about to put a literal ocean and a fifteen hour flight between them.

"To the living room," she tells him, hiking a thumb over her shoulder. "I'm going to help William with some quadratic equations while you pack. You run a city, I'm pretty sure you can pack for your getaway with Slade without my help."

"I wouldn't bet on it," he tells her with a grimace, looking back at his empty duffle bag on the bed. What the hell does he pack for a supposedly _diplomatic_ mission? He's a little out of his depth with this normal life thing. Does he take multiple ties...? Should he take something stealth and nondescript just in case he needs to suit up...?Oliver makes a face. “I don’t know how to pack for something so official.”

Felicity laughs. ”Pack the navy suit,” she tells him confidently, “it'd make anyone agree to _anything_...and well, it's _hot_."

Oliver laughs, shaking his head at her as she winks back at him. "I don't know how much help that's going to be to get Joe out of prison.”

Felicity shrugs, her smile and eyes bright as she drops a hand to her hip. The look on her face tells him she believes in him. That he's got this. And that she's 100% serious about the navy suit. "What time do you leave?"

Oliver sighs. "Slade will be here at 2100,” he says scratching his head.

"Should I order takeout for dinner?” Felicity asks brightly, drawing Oliver's attention back to her. They had tentative made plans to have dinner together tonight, but that had fallen through when Slade’s plan had landed today. Felicity presses her palms together nervously, because you know, this is still very new the Oliver, Felicity and William thing and she's making a huge assumption here but... "I thought maybe we could have dinner before you go.... the _three_ of us. If that's okay...?"

Oliver grins back at her. "I think that's an excellent idea."

"China Palace?" She asks with a waggle of her eyebrow. "I'll even order extra egg rolls."

"You’re the best, thank you. William likes anything with chicken.“

“Huh, I wonder where he gets that from?” she teases and disappears from his doorway, leaving him with an exasperated sigh as he looks back at his duffle bag. 

Half an hour later, duffle bag packed and sitting by the door, Oliver heads for William's room where he and Felicity are working through William's homework at the small wooden study table.

Oliver pushes one hand nervously into the pocket of his navy suit pants and taps a knuckle on the wooden doorframe, drawing their attention from the homework to him. He offers them a warm smile before stepping into the room. He's beyond nervous about how this is going to go especially as things have been going so well between him and William over the past month, even with the threat of the FBI looming over them.

“How’s it going?” he asks as cooly as he can, and William gives him a smile.

“Better thanks to Felicity,” William tells them happily. “She’s so much better at explaining things than Mrs Patterson. She just keeps repeating it over and over and over and expecting that eventually, it will click. Felicity tries different ways to help me understand.”

Felicity shrugs modestly. “It’s just easier having a fresh set of eyes to explain things.” She meets Oliver’s gaze, and realizing that he’s going to have the talk with William she’d encouraged earlier, Felicity clears her throat, giving William a big smile. “How about we call it a night on the math? Takeout should be here soon.” Felicity gets to her feet. “I’ll get a head start on setting the table.” As Felicity passes Oliver, she pats his shoulder comfortingly and quickly presses a kiss to his cheek before she leaves the room.

William, a kid growing infinitely more perceptive by the day, folds the cover closed on his textbook and leans back in his chair.

“You have to go somewhere don’t you?” he asks with a grimace, and when Oliver cocks his head at him, surprised by the question, Will adds, “We rarely have takeout on a weeknight. Even if Felicity is here you or Raisa usually cook.”

Oliver nods. “That’s true. Yeah, Bud, I have to go away for few days-”

“Somewhere dangerous?” William asks quickly, his chin hiked in a manner that says he’ll see through any fake reassurances Oliver is pre-disposed to making.

Oliver rubs his thumb and forefinger together pensively, trying to find the right words to explain.

“Possibly,” he admits earnestly, “although I am hoping not. My friend Slade needs my help. His son is in trouble and he’s hoping that as Mayor I might be able to help use my connections to find him.”

William’s brow knots. He remembers Slade from Lian Yu and the man is absolutely terrifying.

“You’re not helping him as the Green Arrow?” he asks Oliver. And sure, his Dad is pretty influential, he’s the Mayor of Star City after all, but Will’s also seen how powerful he is as the Green Arrow. And if he’s honest, the Green Arrow’s probably going to be more effective finding someone than a guy in a suit and tie. 

“Nope,” Oliver confirms with a smile. “Just plain old me.”

“And you want to know if I am okay with it?” William asks, and once again, Oliver’s nearly floored by his son’s perceptiveness.

Oliver nods. “I’d like for you to be okay with me going,” he tells him. “I know it’s not ideal, but my friend really does need my help. But, if you are not okay with it, then I won’t go.”

Oliver briefly wonders if this is emotional blackmail if he’s just coerced William into agreeing to something Oliver himself doesn’t even want to be doing…

“Slade helped you find mom and Auntie Thea didn’t he?” William asks getting to his feet. “On the Island? The man with the eye-patch?”

Oliver swallows the lump in his throat. “Yes.”

William considers the proposition for a while longer, Oliver waiting with baited breath for his answer. 

“Okay,” William agrees resolutely. “You should help your friend find his son.”

Oliver breathes a sigh of relief.“Thank you. Now Raisa is going to stay with you while I am gone-“

“Not Felicity?” William asks his shoulder sagging a little with the disappointment. “I mean I figured as she's staying here more that she would stay here more when you are _not_ here too…”

Oliver smiles but it takes all his self-control to not beam at William like a completely proud and lovesick idiot. Seeing his son disappointed that he won’t get to spend time with the love of Oliver’s life is god damn life-affirming. It makes grey skies blue, and bad luck good. It’s the best possible feeling. But, no matter how much Felicity and William are bonding, it’s still incredibly early for Felicity to be taking on full-time parental duty. Not that Oliver doesn’t trust her, god she’s even better with William than he is, but it’s a lot to expect, and even though Felicity is keen and comfortable around William, Oliver knows that they aren’t quite there yet. And he’s not willing to push his luck when’s she been so incredible about the whole Oliver/William package deal.

“Bud, you know Felicity adores you. But she has to work this weekend and she's very busy at the bunker at the moment. But, I will leave you her number and if you need anything, I am sure she’ll be all too happy to help.”

William nods. “Okay,” he agrees, at the same time the doorbell rings. A few moments later Felicity calls, “Boys!” and garnering a wry smile from his Dad who huffs a laugh, William climbs to his feet.

“So I should DVR the Rockets game on Saturday?” He asks, approaching Oliver.

Oliver smiles. “Of course,” Oliver tells him, clapping a hand on his shoulder, steering them out into the open plan living area where Felicity is dishing up takeout in the kitchen. “And no sneaking a look at the scores.”

William sighs. “Fine,” He says rolling his eyes a little. “But only if you promise to do the same.”

“Scouts honor,” Oliver tells him, and Felicity snorts.

“You were never in the Scouts,” she says, handing Oliver the container of Kungpow chicken. “Or I would definitely have a copy of that photo. And you know me, I can find _anything_.”

William cocks his head at her. “Anything?”

Felicity nods proudly. “Anything.”

Oliver grins at William as he blows out a breath, impressed by Felicity’s skills.

“So,” Oliver says to William dishing up his dinner, “straight home after school. Homework _before_ Xbox and Felicity is only to _help_ with your science project _not_ do it for you.”

William cocks an eyebrow at his Dad and Felicity huffs.

“I know that’s directed at me,” she says, pretending to be offended. She grins at Oliver. “Scouts honor,” she teases.

“You were never in the Scouts,” Oliver counters and both of them are looking at each other so intently, they miss the eye-roll that William gives their flirting.

“And what about Auntie Thea? We’ll miss this week’s visit...” While Oliver or Felicity checked in on Thea daily, William visited only once a week, after school on a Friday. It had been something he enjoyed, even though he’d never met his Aunt. The fact that she’d been injured while trying to help his Mom earned her huge brownie points in his book.

“I can take you,” Felicity offers William. “I haven’t been since I got back from Central City and I promised to fill her in about the bachelorette party escapades.” She looks at Oliver. “If that’s okay with your Dad?”

Oliver nods. “Yes, if you’re sure. Thank you. _”_

“Can we get flowers?” William asks Felicity. “Bright ones? Last time we were there it was a bit gloomy.”

Felicity grins. “Of course we can. Auntie Thea would love that.”

 


	6. Vows (Post 6x08)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vows (Post 6x08) - Oliver and Felicity spend their Wedding Night in Central City (EXPLICIT).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Before you read... please listen to the song that inspired the first section of this chapter at the point in the story I've placed the link.

**Vows (Post 6x08)**

It's after ten pm when Oliver and Felicity step out from Grossi Trattoria, the small Italian restaurant Iris had recommended for dinner in Central City.

Initially, the couple had intended to head home to Star City, but at the last minute, Oliver had suggested that they take one evening to enjoy their secret nuptials before they share the news with anyone else.

And after the crazy weekend, they'd just endured, it had taken little more than the suggestion of amazing Italian food, her favorite red and a room at the Four Seasons for Felicity to agree. She could totally use a romantic night away with Oliver after all the insanity of the past couple of days.

Fully sated after plates of gnocchi, pasta and a bottle of expensive red wine, the newlyweds fall into step side by side and fingers tangled together as they walk back towards their hotel. It is so liberating to be in a city where they are largely anonymous and can enjoy their evening together without the responsibilities that comes with their normal lives; especially given their last date night had been plagued by Team Arrow and Cayden James drama.

"Dinner was an excellent idea," Felicity tells Oliver with a wink, linking her arm through his and clasping his large hand in two of hers.

Oliver grins down at her, his thumb stroking the skin of her hand as he nuzzles closer. He breathes in her floral perfume, burying his face into her soft loose curls before pressing a kiss to her hair. Her scent, a mixture of the same perfume she's worn everyday since he'd met her and her orange blossom shampoo is one he could pick anywhere. And one he'll gladly wake up to every morning for the rest of his life.

"As was the wine," Oliver tells her thoroughly happy that with her wine selection and encouragement he was a little tipsy. "I haven't had this much wine with dinner since Positano," he admits and Felicity beams, stepping in front of him, stopping him short, and moving into his embrace. "And that includes that night at the bunker."

"Do you know what would make this night even better?" she says reaching up to caress Oliver's cheek gently as his arms band around her waist, holding her closer, cherished.

" _Dessert_?" Oliver asks suggestively, and Felicity responds with an eye-roll and squishes his cheeks playfully between her thumb and forefinger.  
  
"Yes, _that_ Mr Smoak, but I was also thinking that I would like to do something different before dessert. Think of it as an adventure..."

He chuckles as she sasses him, his palm flattening against her lower back so he can caress the shape of her spine and enjoy every moment of being able to touch her, his wife. In fact, he's hardly been able to keep his hands off her all night, and he's pretty sure that's not going to stop in the privacy of their hotel room. As he'd suggested, he'd very much like to move this along to dessert thank you very much; adventure be damned.

Oliver grins. "I am positive we've both had enough _adventure_ for one weekend…"

His hands glide across the soft fabric of her deep burgundy coloured dress and hold her with such heat and need that Felicity finds her mouth dry with the intensity of it. She'd love for him to reach a tad higher, slide the zipper of her dress down and make that filthy moaning sound she loves so much against her skin in the privacy of their hotel room, but, she has another plan first, an idea that sparked with the mention of Positano.

"Please? Just one more drink and one dance and then back to the hotel?" she bargains tracing the line of little navy buttons down the chest of his shirt, before pulling at the sides of the open zip on his leather jacket.

And the way she's looking at him, teeth sunk into her deep red painted bottom lip, her eyes bright and happy, there is no way he would say no.

"Let's get another drink then," he supplies pliantly and Felicity grins slipping her hand into his again before moving towards the curb, pointing to the bar right across the street.

Oliver lets her lead him through the lines of idled traffic, and she looks back at him with a mischievous wink. He grabs her playfully around the waist as they step over the rise of the gutter outside the bar and places a tender kiss on her shoulder.

"Thank you for marrying me," He whispers in her ear, and Felicity shivers a little at the touch of his lips to her skin.

She turns in his embrace to face him and reaches up, tilting his head towards her.

"Thank you for not completely freaking out when I _hesitated_..." she tells him pressing her forehead against his.

"Oh, I freaked out big time," he admits earnestly, thumbing her cheek. "I thought I was losing you again. You were telling me you loved me but my heart nearly stopped. I was terrified. I kept thinking how I was going to explain to William that you didn't want to marry me when-" Oliver hesitates, "…I'd told him that I wanted to marry you…"

Felicity's breath hitches a little in her throat. He hadn't told her that; and now that he had, she's pretty thankful he hadn't mentioned it until now. That would have fried her had she known throughout the course of this weekend. But it actually makes a lot of sense that Oliver had confided in William before he'd popped the question. They'd been FaceTiming with William on Friday night at Joe's before the rehearsal dinner and when Felicity had left the conversation to finish curling her hair, Oliver had stepped outside to finish his call with William letting him in on his plan to propose.

Felicity grimaces. "Hey," she says scratching her fingertips through his beard comfortingly. "I won't ever hesitate again. Not now, not ever. I am all in. You, me and William. I love you so very much; _both_ of you. Okay?"

And god, it's everything. They'd said so much over the past few days. They'd voiced their wants for their future. They'd said their vows. They'd confessed their love for each other in a number of different desperate and heartfelt conversations. But this, this assurance that is more than being caught up in moments between life and death and spontaneity, it's like oxygen, it provides life.

"Okay," Oliver agrees with a smile before leaning in for a kiss. He licks his lips as they pull apart, tasting the wine from dinner on hers. If she wants one more drink and a dance, then he's more than happy to oblige.

"Now let's get you that drink," Oliver whispers salaciously in her ear and the mere implication that it's just one more drink and then he has every intention of having her six ways from Sunday back at the hotel isn't lost on Felicity.

They haven't consummated this yet and it'd been so very hard through dinner to not just climb him like a tree. Especially considering the last time she had was the morning of Barry and Iris' rehearsal dinner three days ago. Those very numbers made her body ache for him, and because of him.

"And my dance?"

"And your dance," Oliver agrees. "I promise."

Felicity waggles her eyebrow at him telling him he'd better deliver on his promise before she arches up on tiptoes, even in her very high heels, and presses her tongue into his mouth teasingly, prompting a loud and appreciative moan from Oliver. Which honestly only encourages her to take the steamy kiss, full of lust as she arches into the line of his body, deeper.

When Felicity pulls away, she thumbs the streaks of her MAC Diva lipstick from Oliver's mouth with her thumb, before relinking her hand in his and leading him (a little breathlessly) into the bar.

The Vanguard is the type of bar that enjoys a large crowd any night of the week, and tonight, a Monday, is no different. From the street, it's low colourful lights wash the crowded room in deep orange and magenta hues and the sound of blues music drifts up and down the street as people come and go from the large heavy pewter grey painted wood door. The vintage neon cursive sign hanging in the window names the club in bright white, and while a bar isn't in their normal date routine, it suddenly seems perfect to Oliver.

Their date night in Positano had started with dinner at a little hole in the wall restaurant they'd stumbled on by accident, a couple bottles of wine and an impromptu salsa dancing class at an alfresco bar on the slow meander home.

It's so fitting that they both remember that night, that this memory they are creating sparks another - it's the night Oliver realised, after only three months of being with Felicity that he wanted to marry her. It's the night he decided that once they were back in the US that he would ask Thea for his Mother's ring so he could propose.

They push through the large crowd of people inside the Vanguard, the audience's attention on the live blues band playing on stage, and head for the bar. The close quarters of the room have them constantly touching, Oliver's hand resting in the small of her back, her own fingers wound around his elbow or wrist or knotted with his own as they try to hold onto each other amongst the throng of people. The place is busy, but the music is sweet and heartfelt, the live band unexpected young and long-haired, and Felicity finds herself humming along, swaying a little as she enjoys the music.

Oliver's eyes barely leave her, his gaze assessing their position in the queue at the bar intermittently before Felicity notices that while she's been watching the band and taking in the atmosphere of the room, he's been watching her.

"What?" She asks with a smile, her voice barely a whisper above the music, but he hears her and grins right back. He's barely done more than smile at her like that all evening and it's incredible. It feels like air and sunshine. And she hopes that he still smiles at her like this fifty years from now.

"I am so lucky to have you," he tells her.

Felicity laughs, palming his cheeks tenderly, wiping off some residual lipstick from his chin that she'd missed before.

"I feel the same way _husband_." But Felicity makes a face the moment she says it. "I sound like Nyssa," she says and Oliver chuckles at her, and pulls her close.

"Maybe she'll stop calling me that now that I am a legitimately married man," he says, and this time Felicity laughs.

"You know she does it to push your buttons."

He grins. "I think she does it to push yours too."

Felicity rolls her eyes. "I don't doubt that. At least she doesn't know how to _'push your buttons'_ push your buttons if you know what I mean?"

Oliver chuckles again. "No honey, please be more transparent," he sasses, and it prompts Felicity to poke him in the chest eliciting an ‘ouch' from him that has her rolling her eyes again.

"Speaking of transparency…should I apologise to Barry and Iris for crashing their vows?" Felicity asks gnawing at her bottom lip anxiously. "Because," Felicity continues, reading his confused look, "they seemed supportive, but the more I think about, I feel pretty guilty about being the _second_ person this weekend to crash their wedding."

But Felicity doesn't get the chance to hear Oliver's reply because the spot in front of them opens up at the bar, and the young hipster guy leaving pushes past Felicity clumsily with a glass of beer in each hand, sloshing some down the front of her dress without a care in the world. Oliver takes a steps towards the man, only an inch or two away from tapping him on the shoulder, before a reassuring touch on his arm from Felicity tells him it doesn't matter, and they move into the spot at the bar the rude man had vacated, Oliver still glaring at the back of the man's head as he walks away.

"Two whiskeys, neat," Oliver tells the bartender holding up two fingers and the guy nods and moves away to fix their drinks. Felicity sidles in between Oliver and the bar, facing him and Oliver moves closer crowding her into his chest as he looks down at her tenderly.

"Given Barry encouraged me to _‘put a ring on it'_ at our tux fitting on Friday, I am pretty sure that while surprised, Iris and Barry won't hold too much of a grudge against you."

Felicity pouts teasingly because she does really hate the thought that they would hold any grudge towards her at all, before breaking into a smile her head cocked at Oliver.

"Did you just quote _Beyonce_?"

Oliver shrugs and grins at her. "I guess I quoted Barry _quoting_ Beyonce. We could send them a nice expensive bottle or two of champagne for the first night of their honeymoon if that'd make you feel better? Besides, the line forms behind _both_ versions of me if we're keeping score on wedding fouls."

But Felicity's smile falters and the little wrinkle forms on her forehead that says she's not exactly convinced that he's as okay with that sentence as he's showing. Felicity is not going to let Oliver wear the guilt of Earth X Oliver's actions. It'll eat at him and she can't let the weight of this weekend settle on his shoulders, not now, not ever.

She'd wanted to give them both time to process what had happened before they had this conversation, but, after their vows in the park this afternoon, instead of debriefing over a well-deserved cocktail or two with Barry, Iris and John, Oliver and Felicity had checked into a hotel and slept. Like passed out. Like, in their clothes, snuggled together, Felicity's drool seeping into Oliver's pillow and the neck of his shirt kind of passed out.

Felicity opens her mouth to reply, but then the drinks appear beside her on the bar. Oliver hands the bartender a note and pays, while Felicity eagerly takes their drinks. With his wallet securely back in his jacket, Oliver takes his whiskey from Felicity, and slips his hand into hers, letting her weave them away from the bar and through the crowd.

He expects her to lead them closer to the music to dance, but instead, Felicity heads towards a spot near the back of the room where they can still hear and see the band but there is a little more room to move. And, he soon realises, room to talk. Oliver has the sharp realisation as they move across the room that their evening of pointedly avoiding any conversations about him putting an arrow in the chest of the Earth-X version of him is drawing to an end; all because he opened his big mouth.

Felicity stops abruptly as they reach the spot she'd pick out for them and she spins towards him, her hand still nestled in his. They both sip their drinks for a moment, searching for the right way to continue their conversation on the complete mindfuck that was this weekend.

Felicity opens her mouth to speak again, but she's still not sure exactly what to say, and instead of blurting out something strangled and probably awkward (…because how does she comfort her husband who just killed an evil version of himself?), she takes another calming sip at her drink before throwing it back like a shot and draining the glass. Oliver steadies her, placing one hand underneath her left elbow as she sways a little on her high heels and then prizes his practically untouched drink from his hands and downs it also, hissing a little as the aged liquor burns her throat. Oliver watches in awe as she clumsily wipes her mouth on the back of her hand and hails the thirty-something bartender nearby collecting glasses. She'd only just started drinking whiskey with him, something that had become a bit of a nightcap on those particularly stressful days they'd had since reuniting, and he'd ordered it specifically with the intention of making her sip at it; not having her down two shots of it in such a short space of time.

Felicity hands the bemused guy both glasses with a bold smile and a singsong ‘thank you' that has Oliver snorting before she turns her attention back to him feeling less clear-headed, but certainly bolder.

"Careful," Oliver tells her gently, "Or soon you won't be able to stand..."

But the Cheshire Cat grin on her face has his large hands settling at her waist, has him holding on a little tighter than strictly necessary, and his fingers squeeze at the curve of her hip.

"For what I have in mind back at the hotel, I don't need to be able to stand," she tells him huskily, whispering in his ear as the crowd clap and wolf whistle signalling the end of the current song.

(Listen to me: <https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LvzXJz9hqSU>)

He grins at her, his grip tightening around her. He's about to ask, ‘what do you have in mind exactly…?' just so he can hear it come out of her pretty little mouth, but the next song begins, and the slow crawl of the intro has Felicity's interest peaking.

This is exactly what she wants. Something to slow dance to. Her eyes hit the stage, searching for the band...

"Dance with me," Oliver whispers in her ear and she looks back at him, smiling for a moment thrilled by his suggestion before she nods. He leads her through the crowd and to the busy dance floor, pulling her to the centre where she can see the band the best.

He pulls her into his embrace and they begin to sway together, the gentle heartfelt music washing over them.

"Hold on tight," he tells her with a wink and then he spins them a couple of times, making her laugh, and once they are swaying together again, one hand pressed to his, one of his in the small of her back, she smiles up at him and sighs wistfully.

"We should do this more often," she tells him, and his eyebrow peaks.

"Get married?" He teases and she laughs.

"Maybe," she jokes. "Once a week, every week for the rest of our lives."

"Deal," he tells her with a broad smile. "But before we have that conversation, which I so very much want to have with you…"

"We need to talk about the whole Earth-X thing," Felicity grimaces.

"Yes," Oliver tells her, "Or I am afraid you're going to drink every single drop of alcohol in this bar getting up the courage to bring it up."

Felicity sighs heavily. "I just can't believe I have to have a conversation with you where we have to distinguish between what you and an _evil_ version of you did."

"I've felt a little like that all weekend," Oliver tells her gently. "...You know I saw you…your doppelganger on Earth-X…"

"I was alive?" Felicity breathes her voice laced with anxious surprise. All train of thought regarding Evil Oliver is derailed. He hadn't said anything about seeing her on Earth-X, none of them had.

Oliver nods, swallowing thickly, and god, he can't believe it was just yesterday.

"I mean, Earth-X was run by _Nazis_ and I am _Jewish_ …" Felicity babbles before Oliver has a chance to get a word out, and her voice trails off as her brain catches up with her mouth. "Was I in a concentration camp?" She asks with bated breath.

Her grandparents had never really spoken about their experiences with the holocaust before they'd moved to America, but you don't grow up in a Jewish family even generations after the Second World War and not feel that terror in your bones. The idea of it, a world where the Nazis had won the war, a world where the doppelganger of the man she loves had been the Führer…that was absolutely terrifying - and she'd tried hard to decidedly not think about it too carefully over the past few days.

Oliver nods sadly and he brushes his thumb against her cheek again, his hand tenderly cupping her face as she trembles a little. "Yes, and he put you there."

Felicity can see the pain on his face from the memory of seeing her like that. She understands completely; having an evil version of Oliver pull an arrow on her, threaten to kill her if she didn't step away from Kara, that was pretty confronting; she can only imagine what seeing a tortured version of her did to him. He'd seen her in and through some pretty awful situations in their life together, but this one took the cake, even if it hadn't really been her.

"What was I doing? When you saw me?"

Oliver swallows thickly, and his hand drops away from her face.

"They'd captured you," he tells her, his voice breaking a little before he clears his throat, the situation on reflection so fucking damming. Even more so now when he considers in this moment that it's more than likely that Earth-X Felicity didn't make it. She'd had just one gun against a world of Nazis. He sucks in a shallow breath forcing himself to disassociate his Felicity from that Felicity.

"She was helping the children in the camp. She was giving them her food rations and they caught her, for sport…to test me."

Felicity's breath catches in her throat and she knows they have to keep dancing, so she takes his hand again, placing his palm on her hip and clutching her hand in his as they begin to slow-dance again.

"And what happened?" Felicity almost whimpers, hoping that Earth X her is about to survive this story because the words ‘to test me' have her worried for both her doppelgängers fate and her husband's already almost incurable guilt.

"I had gone in, was pretending to be him, trying to get us through to the temporal gateway so we could get home, and Lance - well Nazi Lance - he was the officer in charge, and he called my bluff. They knew about you, this Earth you, they knew about us, and they found her. He wanted me to kill you, punish you for your crimes; but it was a test. He gave me a gun and made you kneel at my feet. And it took me about thirty seconds to blow my cover and help you. I turned the gun on Lance instead, but it wasn't loaded, so I was made."

"Was I…" Felicity sucks in a shaky lungful of air, "was _she_ still alive when you left?"

Oliver sighs and gives an almost defeated shrug, but his fingers squeeze hers, begging for strength.

"I don't know," he admits earnestly. "I overpowered Lance and a few of his soldiers and gave her another gun to defend herself. I told her to be careful but she was fucking terrified of me. They all were. I mean, I am used to a certain amount of fear as the Green Arrow, but this was different. He had this incredible power that was sickening and I'm not sure I can ever reconcile that fully."

"Hey, this weekend comes with a tonne of baggage. It's a whole mindfuck that none of us could ever hope to make sense of."

The words ‘like Tommy...and killing your own doppelgänger' go left unsaid, but the sentiment is felt and understood between them, and the worry wrinkle settles again on Felicity's forehead.

"I am okay, Felicity," he tells her, reaching up to thumb the crease from her forehead tenderly.

Felicity's not sure how he could be. She doesn't know how he gets through a third of the things he's been through. She knows that having her to confide in, to support him, to listen when he's ever finally ready to talk about it helps, saves him if she uses his words, just like he does for her, but with the indictment hanging over their head (oh god, that's a whole other minefield), adjusting to parenthood, dealing with everyone's PTSD from Lian Yu…

" _Are_ you? Because I wouldn't be." Felicity looks around, and the other people on the dance floor are too absorbed with listening to the band or dancing to hear them. But she lowers her voice anyway. "I mean, honey, you shot him in the chest with an Arrow. You got rid of his body. I mean, I am barely okay with what I dealt with this weekend and I had a lot less to deal with than you. You don't have to be okay Oliver, you know that, right?"

God, he loves this woman so much. It's crazy, they are having this conversation in the middle of a dance floor after a lot of alcohol on their wedding night, and it's a rough one. But–and he's not really sure how–he is kind of okay. Well, as okay as you could ever be with killing an evil version of yourself…

"Honey, I do know that," he tells her gently, "but I am okay. Like I said earlier, your safety is all that matters to me. We are very lucky he didn't hurt you because he tried to kill me a few times, so I wouldn't have put it past him."

Felicity gives him a comforting smile at ‘we', and it lifts the corners of Oliver's mouth into his own small smile.

"Yeah well, you being _you_ , showed up at precisely the right moment and stopped him. You called his bluff. Regardless of circumstance, good or evil both of you love so deeply enough to risk everything for the women you love. But, thank god, it's over. And now we get to go home to William and get on with things."

Oliver brushes the back of his hand softly against her cheek. And while the lyrics to the music are tender and sad, the very act of dancing to it for technically their first dance as a married couple lifts the momentous weight that had settled between them. It doesn't matter anymore what reservations they had yesterday because it's all behind them. All that's left is to build a future together, them and William.

"I love you, and so does William. The life we build together, the three of us, isn't going to be perfect or conventional, but it's _ours_. And that's all I want. It's all I have ever wanted with you. It's why I asked you to marry me…"

Felicity smiles bashfully at him because she gets that now. And she wants it too. And yes, they can still have that life without rings, name changes or a bit of paper, but now, it makes it that much better. "I know. And I couldn't be happier to be your wife or the Stepmom to your incredible kid."

She's not particularly sure-footed after all the wine and the shots of whiskey and Oliver beams down at her as he steadies her, his hand skimming the length of her back tenderly.

"Me either," he tells her lifting their clasped hands to his lips, and pressing a kiss to hers softly, before moving them so he can twirl her not once, but twice, and then she's back in his arms, and their dancing continues, one palm pressed to his, the other low on his back.  
"How about as soon as this song finishes, we head back to the hotel and I remind you how just how good I can push your buttons push your buttons if you know what I mean?"

"Yes please…" Felicity nods emphatically, "but can we also grab ice-cream on the way…"

Oliver chuckles and nods in agreement, and not a couple of minutes later, as the song ends and the band receive another chorus of applause, the couple are disappearing out of the bar hurrying the two blocks down the street to their hotel and the bodega next door for ice-cream.

*

It never fails to amaze Felicity how Oliver has the coordination to press her against the corridor door of their hotel room his tongue deliciously searching her mouth, one hand squeezing her ass with the plastic bag from the bodega with their ice-cream swinging from his wrist, and his other hand unlocking the door to their hotel at the same time. But he does it, and without skipping a beat.

Before she knows it, they are inside the dark hotel room, the curtain of windows still open, the lights and shape of S.T.A.R labs shining through their picture window, Oliver's mouth skating hotly across the column of her neck as he walks her towards the small kitchen island counter in their hotel room sized kitchen.

He breaks away from her quickly, leaving her standing against the counter, palms resting on the counter top as she tries to catch her breath while he stows the ice-cream in the empty refrigerator-freezer, before he's wrapped around her again, his tongue in her mouth, his hands now whole-focused on palming her delectable ass.

With a small boost, she's suddenly sitting on the countertop and kicking off her high heels, letting them fall to the floor with loud thuds. Oliver moans as she bites at his bottom lip, and in response, he pulls down the back zipper of her dress just like she'd hoped and buries his face into the slight cleavage of the black lace bodysuit she'd worn under the slinky Burgundy dress.

Her dress is pooled at her waist when Oliver comes up for air and he Felicity moans kisses up the column of her neck and claims her mouth again. She pushes her hands into the neck of his jacket, helping him peel it off his broad muscular shoulders that she most certainly cops a feel off and then lets it fall to the floor behind him before she reaches for his shirt buttons.

Her fingers toy unsuccessful with the buttons, her attention distracted by his slow sensual kisses as he wedges his hips between her knees pressing his clothed and growing erection and the hard seem of his dark denim jeans against her. One of his large hands skates patterns up the skin of her inner thighs, producing a moan of encouragement from her lips as the other hand works the skirt of her dress up, turning the knee length dress into a belt around her waist.

"I need you," she pants at him when his fingers skim against the lace covering her core, and his mouth finds hers again in a filthy kiss.

The buttons on his shirt and her drunken fingers are still uncooperative and after loosening the top few Felicity pushes her hands against the wall of his chest, biting at his lower lip again as she tells him, "take your shirt off please."

Oliver obliges, albeit reluctantly, his hands making a slow trek down her thighs until he reaches the hem of his shirt and unbuttons it from the bottom upwards, his lips not leaving hers as he works soft kisses against her mouth, pausing a couple of times to brush his nose against her tenderly.

But now that he's not touching her with his hands, she is desperate to touch him, and her fingers reach for the buckle of his pants. And while buttons aren't her forte after a few drinks, she's actually pretty practised with his belt buckle and pants zipper and can get him out of tight leather with her eyes closed. He groans into her mouth as her fingers spider teasingly across the waistband of his jeans, and she slips her hand into his pants, his shirt still hanging on his shoulders, still buttoned at his wrist but wide open revealing his incredible chest. Felicity takes a moment, pulling her lips from his to survey the litany of scared skin, her fingers tracing a set of new bruises on his abdomen courtesy of Earth-X Oliver.

Oliver stills and with the hand that had been pressing her hips to his, he knots his fingers with those she had been using to trace the marks on his skin.

"I'm okay, really," he tells her again, reading the expression of worry that crosses her face, the way she spears her bottom lip worriedly between her teeth whenever she sees any sort of bruise or mark on him. But he knows this is different.

"It doesn't mean I'm not going to worry about you," she tells him, meeting his eye, and he huffs a tender laugh and cups her face gently, bring her lips back to his, first for a soft kiss, and then deepening it so she's panting against his lips again sucking in air.

Felicity's mouth leaves his, and she unexpectedly lowers her mouth to his pecks salaciously rolling her tongue against his right nipple, and the left nipple in turn.

"Fuck, Fe-lic-ity," he groans, his hands buried in her hair, as her tongue glides from nipple to nipple, and then she kisses back up his chest to his neck, nipping at him with sharp teeth against the pulse point in his throat and her fingers roam, slide into the waistband of his pants again.

He hisses as her hand palms his hardening dick and fuck, her fingers wrapped around his length is so damn good, he kind of forgets what he's doing and drops his hands to his sides trying to focus his pleasure-fogged brain. And damn, he is such a sight standing in front of her arms at his sides, thumbs and forefingers rubbing together unwittingly, his shirt still hanging from his cut frame, while her mouth sucks at his neck and her hand strokes his dick, her legs wrapped around him.

She moans against his skin the moment she feels her own arousal heightening, the cold air and bench top cool against her heated skin, and the sound spurs Oliver back to consciousness, one idle hand cupping her bare ass cheeks the thong body suit leaves exposed, the other palming the column of her neck as he pulls her lips back to his.

"Will you suck me off?" He whispers to her, his lips hovering against hers for a moment, as he breaks their kiss to ask, his eyes fixed on hers.

And Felicity is immediately thankful they'd napped this afternoon because the look he gives her while he seeks her permission is so freaking steamy, she has to suck in a gasp of air to get the air back in her lungs. They're in for a long night.

He traces her bottom lip softly where she's biting down, her white teeth sunk into the deep red of her lips and with a small nod and widely blown eyes full of desire, Felicity agrees. She presses a chaste kiss to each side of his mouth, before slowly pulling her hand out of his jeans. God, she needs him to touch her, but she knows the longer she holds off, the longer she lets her pleasure grow without his touch, the more fucking fantastic her orgasms are going to be (yeah, there is no question if he's going first that she'd getting multiple multiple orgasms) with his lips and tongue on her.

Oliver helps her climb down from the bench top, her legs a little shaky both from anticipation and the alcohol and he holds her tightly, his face buried in her neck as kneads the flesh of her bare ass and walks them further into the apartment. Along the way, her dress is abandoned on the kitchen floor and she has him shimmy out of his jeans in the doorway of their bedroom, leaving him in tented boxer briefs and his half removed shirt, and a look on his face that says he's already thoroughly wrecked.

She moves him blindly towards the bed, her mouth hot and panting against his as they kiss feverishly, and then suddenly he's seated on the edge of the bed, his head at her navel, his hands on the back of her legs, as his lips skate across the lacy fabric covering her abdomen.

"I want to taste you so bad," he says looking up at her, his eyes blown wide with arousal before he presses his lips to the skin close to her belly button making her shiver.

At that suggestion Felicity drops to her knees on the carpet in front of him, taking a moment to kiss him sweetly, softly, without tongue. "Me first," she tells him sultrily, unclipping the buttons at his wrists so she can remove his shirt fully. Felicity grins as he exhales loudly like she's just knocked the wind out of him.

She slides her hands into the back of his shirt, pushing it down his shoulders. As she moves, his hands trace softly against the flanks of her torso, before his thumbs trip over the buds of her nipples through the fabric, making her breath catch. Her back arches as he does it again and another groan falls from her lips because she's so fucking turned on right now that just his skin against hers is incredible. She clenches her knees together, trying to find some -any- friction against her the fabric of her body suit and her wet sex, and instinctively Oliver reaches out to her wanting to give it to her.

But she swats his hand away playfully and lowers back onto her heels away from him. "If you touch me, I won't be able to focus," she tells him with a smile, "and we know how that ends."

He chuckles pulling his hands from the sleeve of his shirt, sending it flying behind him on the bed and then leans back, his hands on the bed, as he watches her prepare to take him in her mouth. Her eyes are fixed on his tented dick, and then her hands are in the waistband of his boxer briefs and he lifts his ass giving her the leverage to pulling them down his thighs and legs, his large cock bobbing free.

Oliver moans as she touches him, and he reaches out to swipes her hair over one shoulder as she lowers her face into his lap and runs her tongue from the base of his cock to tip before she sucks his head into her mouth. She swirls her tongue around him, tasting him thoroughly as he leaks pre-come into her mouth, before she hollows out her cheeks, lavishing at his dick over and over in exactly the right way that has him seeing stars.

With her mouth and one hand on his dick stroking and sucking his rock hard cock eliciting a slew of moaning encouragement from him with his head thrown back, Felicity uses her other hand to play with his balls, cupping, stroking and squeezing them expertly. Oliver has little reprieve but to fist one hand into her hair again and as he does she looks up, right into his eyes and he groans. She's all sex and sin between his legs dressed in lace, her flushed pillowy lips swallowing and moving against him. It's almost reactionary that at the same time she looks up at him, he gives a couple of larger thrusts into her mouth, but he stops himself quickly knowing he's pushing his luck with her gag reflex.

She pulls her lips from his wet hard dick with a loud pop, her hand still gliding up and down his length as she asks him, "Do you want to fuck my mouth? If you go slow we can try it..."

And god, he nearly comes right there and then.

He shakes his head, his thumb stroking her cheek as he says, "No baby, you've got this..." and then she doubles down, wrapping her lips around him again, more determined to get him off as quick as possible because the flushed heat in her own sex is almost unbearable.

"Oliver, I _need_ you to come..." she tells him, kissing up his length, her fingers squeezing at his base, "because I need you to start fucking me..."

Oliver's licks at his dry lips and he's so close, he doesn't dare move. "Touch yourself for me..."

Felicity doesn't need to be asked twice. She removed her hand from his balls, and eyes locked on his as she sucks at his tip, she traces her hand down her torso to her sex, cupping herself through the fabric. She widens her knees, so he can see her pussy through the lace, and then slips her fingers underneath the fabric to slide her fingers through her arousal, moaning against his dick.

She's barely played with her clit for a minute when his hand is on her cheek again.

"I am going to come..." he tells her, seeking permission and she nods a little hollowing her cheeks and sucking with more intensity until he spills into her mouth, his body shaking with his release. He falls backwards onto the bed spent with a groan of release mumbling something about earth-shattering.

Felicity swallows his thick come willingly, bobbing expertly on his cock, his taste tangy on her tongue, her hands on his knees, stroking them softly as he winds down. When he's done, she pulls off with an obscene pop and crawls onto the bed beside him and into his open arms, draping her arm around his waist. His eyes are closed while he catches his breath and she snuggles into his neck, watching the rise and fall of his chest.

"... _earth-shattering_?" She asks just a bit smugly and Oliver opens his eyes and grins down at her, his fingers tracing the curve of her spine.

"You fucking know you are," he tells huskily, pinching her playfully on the ass and she beams at him pressing a kiss to his shoulder.

Felicity laughs. "I know you're blissed out right now," she tells him, dropping soft kisses against his skin, "but I'd like to move this along to dessert…?"

Felicity yelps with surprise as Oliver springs up, rolling her onto her back, slotting himself between her knees.

"Honey, we're not even at the main course yet," he tells her in a low deep voice, capturing her mouth with his and damn, his kisses leave her breathless.

He presses her body into the mattress, his weight delicious against her flushed skin and after kissing every last vestige of her lipstick from her swollen and abused lips, his kisses skate down her neck to her collarbone, leaving a hot trail in his wake. She undulates against him, trying to increase the friction of her now almost aching core against him, but he puts a heavy hand on her hip, pressing her into the bed.

"Soon," he tells her, and Felicity groans as his lips move down her chest to her hard nipples, that are now almost pressing through the fabric of the lace bodysuit she's now regretting not taking off earlier, wanting to feel his bare skin on hers.

Oliver chuckles in response, reaching up to pull one strap of her lingerie down, revealing one of her breasts.

It doesn't take long for the incredible sensation of the rough hair of his beard against the soft skin of her breast to have her skin red, and once her left nipple is thoroughly lapped at, he does the same on the other side, this time sucking her right nipple through the fabric of her bodysuit. It's almost too much, and he can feel her shaking beneath him, as she cards her fingers through her hair.

"Oliver, please..." she keens breathlessly, gently lifting his head so she can look him square in the eye.

And he can't deny her anymore. He gets to his knees, in between her own and gently peels the lace bodysuit from her torso. She helps, shuffling on her back as the fabric slips down her body until the fabric reaches her core and Oliver lifts both of her legs high to his shoulders, resting them against his collarbone as he continues to peel the fabric from her body, his lips lavishing kisses to her toned calves. Once the fabric is free he tosses it away and runs his hands soothingly up the back of her thighs.

"I am so glad you didn't rip that," she tells him looking up at him, "it was stupidly expensive and it's one of my favorites."

"I thought about it," he admits with a grin because he does have a colourful history ripping lingerie off her. His fingers sooth the tight muscles of her calves from hours in those ridiculously high heels she'd insisted wear to dinner lovingly as he tells her, "But its one of my favourites too."

He gently eases her legs open, settling them either side of his body so she's open and exposed to him. He can see she's almost painfully wet for him, and her breath catches as his eyes dance from her exposed sex to her face. She teasingly traces a hand from her navel to her breast, palming her nipple as she locks eyes with him.

"Fuck," he breathes, leaning forward to kiss up the inside of her thigh, and then with both hands on her hips he pulls her closer and lowers his mouth to her apex, blowing his warm breath against her heated core.

"Holy shit," she breathes, writhing against him as he laps at her clit, tracing her sex with his tongue and index finger teasingly.

His mouth feels incredibly warm and delicious as he sucks her clit slowly, and his saliva coupled with her own arousal has his fingers gliding smoothly between her folds. And then with little warning, but his fingers clasping more tightly on her thighs to hold her still, he's inside her, penetrating her with his tongue.

It's relentless as he fills, laps and sucks at her, and she finds herself eyes closed, one hand fisting in the comforter of the bed, the other palming her own breast desperately for more relief.

"Right there," she encourages desperately, as his tongue swirls inside her and her back arches, and then he's pushing two fingers inside her wet heat, penetrating deeper. His mouth finds her clit again, gently rolling his tongue against it, making her swell even more.

"Fuck, Oliver..." she cries as her orgasm peaks without warning, and he works her through it, her sex squeezing his large rough fingers tightly as she trembles underneath him.

*  
**[The next day.]**

"Dessert for breakfast was a good idea…" Felicity tells Oliver with a bright smile her eyes and hands fixed carefully on scooping another spoonful of mint choc chip ice-cream from the carton.

She's obviously referring to the ice-cream but it still elicits a grin from Oliver, and he leans over to kiss her softly on the shoulder. Felicity is sitting on the kitchen counter again, her knees either side of Oliver's hips as he stands, hands on her knees watching her demolish the carton of ice-cream for breakfast at his disgust, his black coffee brewing on the bench beside her from the french press of coffee they'd ordered from room service.

They'd gone to bed incredibly late last night and the only thing that has roused Felicity from sleep this morning, despite Oliver's soft sleepy kisses was his reminder that last night they had skipped actual dessert in favour of sex. Lots of it.

But this morning however, aside from an incredible make-out session in their excellent double head shower, ice-cream was the only dessert they'd devoured. Shrugging off his wandering hands, Felicity had kicked Oliver out of the bathroom so she could wash her hair.

While Felicity had finished up in the bathroom, Oliver had towelled dry, pulled on a pair of sweats and slipped into the kitchen, letting the carton of mint choc chip melt on the counter for a few minutes while he checked in back home with Raisa and John and ordered coffee from room service.

Felicity had emerged from the bedroom for breakfast in Oliver's button up from last night, the sleeves rolled up, the top three buttons undone with the neck falling square between her naked breasts, and thighs bare, a few Oliver sized fingerprint marks peaking out from the hem of his shirt where he'd held her a bit too closely as he'd buried his head between her legs.

"I do enjoy a good _dessert_ in the morning," he says with a wink at her and she laughs.

"Why do you think I prefer to stay at your place instead of the loft?" she counters with a grin before popping the spoon of ice-cream in her mouth.

It's melted consistency means a few errand drops fall on Felicity's chin, and Oliver reaches up to brush them away with his thumb, before sucking the ice-cream off a little more seductively than he had intended, prompting Felicity to lick her lips at him.

"Mmmm minty," he tells her, leaning in for a sensual languid kiss that leaves Felicity humming a little.

"Mr Queen, are you trying to seduce me?"

"Maybe a little," he admits, dropping an index finger into the ice-cream carton and then tracing her lower lip with it seductively, before kissing her again. Felicity savours the kiss, and then grabs his hand, sucking the remaining ice-cream from his finger teasingly, and the sight is even hotter than he'd intended, his dick twitching in his pants at the visual.

"Imagine much fun we could have with _this_ in _there_ …" Felicity says with a waggle of her eyebrows and Oliver, grinning broadly, shakes his head.

"You know the rule - no food in bed."

Felicity pouts. "But honey, it isn't even our bed…you don't have to wash the sheets…"

"I don't care. No. Food. In. Bed," he tells her again, punctuating each word with a kiss.

Felicity grins, dipping her own finger into the ice-cream carton and then slipping it between her pillowy and stubble burnt lips, leaving Oliver with little option but groan, and slam his eyes closed in response.

"Spoilsport," she teases, her finger still in her mouth and holy hell.

" _Fe-lic-ity_ ," Oliver warns but his threat is so incredibly empty and thinly veiled that he's sure all it does is encourage her.

Felicity places the ice-cream container on the bench beside her, and shuffles to the edge of the bench, winding her legs around his waist, pulling him in closer, his shirt riding high up her thigh, exposing herself to him.

"You're going to be the death of me," he breathes, but he's so down and she can feel him hardening in his pants.

"But what a way to go right?" She asks, and he groans in return kissing her hungrily.

She presses her naked sex against his groin, her arms banded around his waist hauling him closer. Oliver ducks his head a little and nudges the collar open on his shirt, finding the wide valley between her small pert breasts easy, tracing it with a long lick and making her shiver.

She moans as his tongue traces her skin, her back straightening as his large strong hands and forearms stretch up against her spine, pulling her towards his mouth, her fingers clutching at his hair. Her skin is still flushed with beard rash across her chest, something he traces with his tongue, before finding her collarbone and sucking and nipping at the skin there to mark her. She knows she'll have a purple bruise there later but she doesn't care in the slightest.

In response, she rubs her pelvis against his and the growing bulge in his sweats, and he groans against her neck, where he's buried his face into her wet hair. The fabric is course against her tender sex, and even though they'd made it through two very vigorous rounds of sex last night after he'd eaten her out, she wants him again already.

"One more time in Central City for good luck," she whispers to him and Oliver chuckles against her skin.

"Are you sure?" He asks, dropping one hand to gently trace the marks he'd left on her thigh. "I know you're already sore…"

She'd barely been able to walk when they'd got out of bed to shower earlier but she nods empathically.

"Make me come one more time," she whispers in his ear tying the end of his shirt into a crop top at her navel, revealing the wet patch on his sweats where they'd rubbed against each other and her wet sex, giving them both full view.  
  
Oliver pulls his engorged cock free from his sweats and he gently traces the line of her sex with his dick, sheathing himself with her arousal. Felicity's hands settle on his shoulders, holding herself steady. His touch at her core is both pleasure and pain and she takes a couple of deep breathes, preparing herself as she knows she is going to be sore and tight. With a small nod from Felicity, Oliver reaches out to touch her gently with his hands, circling her tender clit a few times before stroking through her folds softly, finding her warm and slick again for him as he gently eases two fingers into her.

"You okay?" He asks because she feels wet and tight around his fingers, wet from their lovemaking last night but tight in that her body is exhausted and raw from his earlier efforts. He wants to move, to push his cock inside her again, but he doesn't want to hurt her.

Felicity nods and cups his face. "Perfectly fine, we just have to take it slow," she tells him with a soft kiss before reaching for him. As she does, he releases her fingers from her core, settling his hands on her hips as she guides him slowly into her.

She slides him in slowly, to the hilt and then pauses, letting herself adjust. He jostles them a little, pulling her almost off the edge of the bench so he can get some better leverage and Felicity winces, biting her lip. God, she's so sore, they'd really gone at it last night, but the pain is not enough to deter her, and more foreplay is only going to make her more sensitive and sore.

"I'm sorry," he tells her gently, a look crossing his face that says that he's very close to pulling out of her again so he doesn't hurt her, but Felicity shakes her head and rubs her nose against his tenderly.

"I was very complicit last night. Very very complicit," she says working her fingers between them to gently stroke her clit a little just to help in the way his heavy hands can't this time. Oliver brushes one hand across her cheek before gently taking hold of the column of her neck, watching her stroke herself, him inside her.

"Honey, I need you to move," he tells her softly in her ear.

Felicity kisses him softly and locks her ankles tightly at his backside, her eyes on his as she deepened the kiss and slowly rolls her hips against him. Oliver slides his tongue into her mouth and she begins to move, rocking against him, riding him slowly. He lets her set the pace and take control.

It's slow and tender, a direct contrast to last night's insatiable pace, but it is no less fulfilling. They hold each other tightly, their kisses potent and full of love for each other. It doesn't take long, Felicity's oversensitive body practically humming within a few short minutes, and the very feel of her setting him on edge too. Felicity makes good on her promise to make them both come again, her arms banded around his shoulders, Oliver buried deep inside her as he comes with a ragged breath. Oliver holds her close as she collapses on him completely spent, her come–soaked sex fluttering around his softening cock, her eyes closed and forehead resting against his chest.

"I don't think I can move," she tells him almost bonelessly and he chuckles as he places a soft kiss on the shell of her ear.

He pulls out of her slowly, Felicity groaning at her hypersensitivity, and with one hand on her lower back holding her upright as she slumps against his chest he slips himself back into his sweats and unties the knot in the end of his shirt.

He kisses her head softly and she murmurs, "We should probably get packing if we're going to meet Cisco at Star Labs." But she doesn't dare move. She needs to clean up and she's sitting in a wet patch on the counter, but it doesn't stop her from asking nervously, "How do you think everyone is going to react when we tell them we eloped?"

Oliver gently traces her kiss-swollen lips with his thumb. "Relieved probably. You know last night when we joked about getting married every week? Well maybe, on one of those days in the not too distant future…if you're okay with it…maybe we could invite our friends and family too…?"

But Oliver has no need to worry about the suggestion that had got him in trouble on Friday when he'd clumsily proposed because this proposal is met with a beatific smile.

"I'd like to marry you again as soon as possible," Felicity says happily. "With William, Thea, my parents, The Diggles, the team…and whomever else you want to invite there."

"Yeah?" He breathes, and she nods emphatically.

"Yes. I mean it will take a couple of days to get a marriage licence etcetera, and you're the Mayor of Star City so hopefully we can expedite it even quicker…but how about Thursday night? City Hall Ballroom?"

Oliver beams at her. "I'll check with Rene, but providing the Ballroom is free…then, yes, let's do it."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Ugh, this chapter was a nightmare to write. I rewrote it about a thousand times before I just had to post errors and all. Hopefully, you enjoyed it. *runs away and hides from the fandom*. Xo


	7. Interrupted (post 6x18)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Interrupted (post 6x18): Felicity finds herself having to hold her boys together post 6x18.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Season 6 is a mess, so I stopped writing. But 6x18 was better, and left me with a few things. Oliver needs some therapy. People need to stop tearing shreds off him. Here’s my fix. Felicity to the rescue. Unedited and written quickly this morning...sorry in advance.

#7 Interrupted 

“Hey, just the man I was waiting for!” Felicity says excitedly, a bright grin on her face as she both greets William and pulls the chocolate pastry from the toaster and flips it expertly only the breakfast plate before her. 

William, every cautious when sugar is involved given his Dad is such a stickler for nutrition, raises an eyebrow at his stepmom, both skeptical and surprised to see her in the kitchen this morning. Normally she’s sitting at the breakfast bar sipping on coffee and chatting with his Dad while he makes breakfast, but this morning, after that disaster of a day yesterday, his Dad isn’t anywhere in sight. 

“It’s not your usual school day breakfast but, I figure after that second place ribbon, you definitely deserve something chocolately for breakfast.” 

William takes the proffered plate and slides into Felicity’s seat at the breakfast bar. “Thanks Felicity.” 

She gives him a wink, and reaches for the boiled kettle to top up her coffee. 

“Where is Dad? He’s usually up by now?” 

Felicity gives William a small smile, not one that’s fake, one that definitely still shows concern for his Dad, but one that promises even though it seems pretty bleak right now, he’ll be okay. 

“Thought I’d let him sleep. Yesterday was...”

“Hard?” William supplies helpfully, taking a bite out of his pop tart. The ones that Felicity hides in cupboard from Oliver, but the ones Oliver definitely knows are there. It’s a game they play, one William witnesses and loves. It’s cute. 

Felicity nods. “Yeah hon, for lack of a better word right now, yesterday was hard. Dad needs some sleep. And probably a holiday and a haircut, and definitely new socks. I didn’t want to wake him.” Felicity sips at her coffee. “If Dad asks you had oatmeal for breakfast.”

William grins. “No sweat,” he says, before his face falls a little. “Is Dad going to be okay?” 

Felicity gives him a comforting smile, reaching across to squeeze his forearm tenderly. “Yeah hon, he’s going to be fine. Just needs to catch up on some sleep and take a doona day. You know your Dad well enough by now.”

William nods. He takes another mouthful of his pop tart, chewing pensively for a while before he swallows. “The kids at school will be talking about it...” William admits sadly. 

Felicity grimaces. “What your Dad did was brave. He stood up for the city. The people he fired were corrupt. Many of the people he worked with are corrupt. 

People are always going to have a lot of opinions about your Dad Will, they always have. He hasn’t exactly lived a nice quaint little quiet life. But, you should be proud of him for standing up for what’s right. 

And as soon as he’s had some rest, even without City Hall, he’s going to keep fighting for this city and everyone. And, us. So, if those kids at school start on you today, have anything nasty to say about your Dad, just let it ride. Bide your time. Because eventually the truth about Ricardo Diaz will come out. Until then, stay sharp okay? And, as always, hit your panic button if anything gets...hinky.” 

Williams nods confidently as he shoves the last mouthful of pop tart into his mouth. Felicity’s phone beeps and she takes a final sip of her coffee, before placing the still half full mug into the sink. 

“Right, you are fed and showered and I know your homework is ready. So get your things, brush your teeth and I will drop you at school.” 

Will grins, thankful for any opportunity that he doesn’t have to catch the lousey bus to school, and slides off his chair, hurrying to his room for his things. 

*

Felicity waits until Will is out of the car and heading down the footpath to the school building before she keys John’s number into her phone. It rings longer than she anticipates, and she knows that John’s still a bit angry at her for parent trapping him and Oliver yesterday. But, she needs to talk to him all the same, if not to try and talk a little bit of sense into her best friend. 

Oliver’s bright idea last night to continue his crusade “back to basics” is terrifying - because the assumption is that aside from teaching him the way around her systems, and upgrading some of his wearable tech to help in the field, her days as Overwatch seem numbered. She’s still hoping to talk Oliver out it, still hoping she can talk some sense into him, and the only other person she can talk to who understands that is (unfortunately right now) John. 

“Hey Felicity,” John answers, his voice as neutral as possible. “I saw the news...” 

Felicity frowns. “He needs a friend right now John. Yesterday was a wreck.”

Diggle sighs. “I am the last person who wants to, or can talk to him right now. I am sorry he lost his job, we both know the impeachment is a crock of shit, but maybe it isn’t such a bad thing for Oliver to step down and let Quentin take the reins.” 

Felicity pinches the bridge of her nose in frustration, pulling off her glasses with the other hand. “This isn’t going to blow over it is?” 

“No,” John admits soberly. “No matter how much you want it to.” 

“He wants to do it all alone. Go back to basics.”

“That’s pretty fitting given there isn’t anyone left.”

“That means without me too.” 

John swears under his breath. “He’s such a moron sometimes. He’ll get himself killed.” 

“That’s what I am afraid of. Please, John. We need you. I need you. I can’t lose him.”

“Felicity, I-“

“He got doused with Vertigo yesterday. It was pretty bad. Like, hallucinating about Chase, getting in the old suit, trying to storm Ricardo Diaz in a police station full of crooked cops by himself bad. I almost lost him.” 

John sighs heavily and she knows she’s getting somewhere. There is silence on the other end of the line and she hopes John is formulating a plan, because she honestly needs his help. 

“Felicity, we’re family. And family fall out. I think it’s best we keep our distance for a while.” 

And just like that, Felicity realised that things between Oliver might not be fixable this time. 

*

It’s a little after 9am by the time Felicity makes it back to the parking garage, and as she switches off the engine Felicity hopes that Oliver’s still asleep. 

The vertigo had made him restless last night, and he’d tossed and turned for a good couple of hours after they’d gone to bed before he’d finally drifted of, his arm draped across her waist protectively, her nose buried into his neck, her on her back, him on his stomach. 

She’d been tempted to tire him out herself, god knows they’d both need the stress relief and seretonin, but frankly neither had had the energy. This had been the first full nights sleep he’d had since god knows when, and, honestly she wasn’t sure exactly what he was going to wake up to. 

Being impeached had been hanging over his head for so long, every since the indictment, that maybe it would be relief. That finally there was a decision. And, the city was in good hands with Quentin. But, the reality was that after everything with Curtis, Rene, Dinah and John, with Thea and Roy off forging their own paths, with all the fears and ghosts of his past and future still so fresh in his mind, there is a lot of possibility that even though they were right in the thick of it with Diaz, Oliver wasn’t going to be in the best frame of mind right now...

Felicity takes the stairs to their apartment, hoping that it counts towards her daily cardio as she juggles the breakfast and coffee she’d picked up from the coffee shop down the road. The apartment is still quiet when she arrives home, the open door of their bedroom bathed in relative darkness. The morning sun often creeps in from behind the blinds, affording her enough light to make out a path into the room, and her still sleeping husband who had moved to her side of the bed, the furtherest from the door, her pillow folded under his head as he stretches out almost as a starfish on his belly.

Felicity smiles a little as she walks to his bedside table, gently moving his phone (turned off), wallet and watch Quentin had given him as a wedding gift towards the small framed photograph they’d taken with Thea and William at Christmas, making enough room for her tray of coffees and toasted sandwiches. 

Oliver doesn’t move, but she knows he’s waking, as his breathing is more controlled and his fingers clasp onto her pillow. 

Felicity climbs onto the bed, slipping her jean covered legs under the covers and scooting towards him. She kisses his shoulder tenderly, a palm sliding to the small of his back, and then he’s moving, pulling her in close and under him, his mouth moving against hers. It’s soft at first, until he settles his weight on her, and she instinctively wraps a leg over his calf, and then their kiss breaks. 

“Someone turned off my alarm,” he accuses in a sleepy gravelly voice. 

Felicity grins. It’s her favourite on him, second of course to his soft voice he uses just for her. 

“You don’t need that alarm anyway Mr always awake at dawn.” Felicity palms his cheeks, making him look at her, his blue eyes the clearest she’d since over the past twenty four hours. The stubble on his cheeks is longer and thicker than usual, but he looks better than yesterday, when the vertigo had him. She should have seen it the moment he walked in from city hall and the moment he’d raised his voice at her, as it was something he rarely did clearheaded. 

“Besides,” she says, her fingertips gently massaging his greying temple. “You needed the rest. You tripped pretty hard.”

He huffs a laugh. “Yeah, it’s been a while,” he says, rolling off her, but wrapping his arms around her to hold her close still. “William get off to school okay?” 

Felicity nods. “Yeah baby, he’s fine. Resilient and resourceful that one. He was worried about what the kids at school would say...”

Oliver groans a little, and he lifts a hand to his face, soberly scratching at it.

“But I told him just let it ride. Kids will always be mean. People will always have an opinion about you. He can’t take that on.”

“Thank you,” Oliver says kissing her temple. “That’s excellent advice. Exactly what he needed. You are incredible with him.”

Felicity looks up at him and the sad look that colours his face as he recalls what happened yesterday, the mess he’d made both physically and emotionally when he’d lost his temper. 

“So are you,” Felicity implores. “Yesterday wasn’t normal Oliver; it wasn’t you. You don’t raise your voice at us like that. Don’t beat yourself up over it.”

“What if I had hurt you-“ and his voice is laced with worry.

“Oliver. Enough. Please.”

“Felicity...if I ever scare you and William like that again-“

“You won’t,” Felicity says, kissing him softly. “You won’t Oliver-“

“If I do,” Oliver insists, “do exactly that. Get yourself and William away from me. Protect each other-“

And then she sees it, even in the darkened room, the tear slide down his cheek sadly. She wipes it away, and leans closer to kiss his damp cheek. 

“We don’t need protection from you Oliver. You are not that man. These past few weeks have literally torn shreds off you. You are human Oliver. You are allowed to make bad decisions; and every one of those you’ve had to make which have pushed the team away, none of them have been clear cut. None. You are allowed to make mistakes. You are a leader, and you are a good leader. You are a good man Oliver. 

You have to remember that Rene, Curtis, Dinah and John, all have their own demons to work though. But you’ve let their words get to you. You carry around their blame and it’s too heavy. You’ve taken all of their shit on board and...it’s breaking you. The vertigo heightened all of it. You are doubting yourself. You give everything Oliver, all you can, for us, and for the city. You always have. All of them leaving, it’s not your fault. You have to give yourself a break.”

Felicity’s words wash over him and Oliver physically slumps against her like he has no energy left to hold it all in. He buries his face into her neck, crying thick tears against her skin letting it all wash over him, so open and vulnerable. Felicity wraps her arms around him, holding him tight, telling him whatever is left to come with Diaz, with the team, they’ll get through it all together.


	8. Little boxes (post 6x16)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Little boxes (Post 6x16): Oliver gives Nyssa’s annulment gift to Felicity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wrote this quickly on the train this morning. Sorry for any errors.

**Little boxes (post 6x16)**

Felicity is at the door the moment his key is in the lock, standing there nervously, fretting, slightly sad that she hadn’t been able to be by his side to say goodbye to Thea and Roy (and Nyssa, but she was less sad to see her go). She realises all too late she should have just opened the door for Oliver, and he clearly has the same confusing thought, his head cocked at her and eyebrow raised as the door swings open and he spots her. 

She blushes a little and steps forward as he closes the door behind him and shrugs off his peacoat.

“You okay?” She asks gently, pressing herself to his back, her hand on his shoulder as he threads the coat onto the hook by the door.

“Yeah,” he says with a heavy breath and a small smile. He is happy, he told Thea to follow her heart, but he can’t help already miss her. He figures this isn’t like last time though, where she just disappeared off to “Europe” and left them all an email on her whereabouts. The lines of communication are open, she’s still a part of their lives, promising to visit for Will’s birthday and extending the same invitation to visit over the summer once they figure it all out. “I mean, I am going to miss her...”

“Goes without saying,” Felicity says pressing a kiss to his shoulder blade.

Oliver hums a little, enjoying having her so close, her hands wrapped around his waist, her breath warm and comforting on his back. He turns carefully in her embrace, until she is locked in his, and his lips skate across her forehead tenderly, pulling her in close to his chest and holding her tightly.

“But, I am happy she’s with Roy. Insane Malcolm legacy aside.”

Felicity looks up and Oliver with a smile. “How mad will you be if they elope and don’t tell you?”

Oliver grins. “So mad,” he says, rubbing Felicity’s back tenderly. “I think we both know the older brother/younger sister code states “do what I say, not what I do”. And William would be so crushed. He adores Thea. And he idolises Roy a little more than I am comfortable with.”

Felicity chuckles, pulling out of Oliver’s embrace, but clasping his hands in hers. “I think you’ve put enough fear of god in Roy over the years that he’d know better than to let Thea elope without telling you. Can’t say the same for Thea though,” she teases as an after thought prompting a grimace from Oliver as she drags him further into the living room. “Raisa made dinner,” she says heading towards the kitchen, “let me get you some.” 

“Thank you,” Oliver breathes, sliding onto a stool at the kitchen bench as Felicity reheats a plate of Raisa’s famous spaghetti.

Oliver carefully pulls the slim gold box from the pocket of his jeans and places it on the counter in front of him. Soon after the microwave beeps and Felicity places the plate of food down in front of him, her interest peaking when she see the box.

“What’s this?” She asks with a bright smile. 

The last two times she’s seen a box like this from him had included the car keys to a new Porsche for them to road trip in, and a key to his, now their, apartment. 

“Something for you,” Oliver smiles, taking the proffered fork from Felicity.

“What is it? You already got me a key.”

Oliver grins. “It’s way better than a key,” he teases. “And a Porsche.”

“It is?” Felicity asks excitedly, picking up the small flat pocket sized box and turning it over carefully, feeling the weight of the box as she considers what is inside.

“Yes. Open it.”

Felicity grins and pulls the lid open, revealing the small ornate dagger Nyssa had given Oliver earlier. Her brow knits in completely confusion and surprise and Felicity looks up at Oliver with an incredulous expression.

“It’s a...dagger?”

Oliver nods. “It’s an annulment for a Nanda Parbat marrriage.”

Felicity’s confusion fades, and her excitement peaks.

“It is?” She breathes in relief.

Oliver nods and smiles. “Nyssa gave it to me. It’s legit.” 

Felicity grins. “Are you sure? Like, I didn’t thing she had it in her to be playful, but she called my Sister Wife earlier -“

“She what?” Oliver asks, his own brow furrowing.

“Oh yeah, it was so awkward and weird and that better have been a joke...and I think it was, but you know what, with Nyssa you never know.”

“The whole Sister Wife thing, was a joke,” Oliver assured her. “But this,” he points his fork at the dagger, “is real.”

Felicity gives him a look that says she’s not 100% confident, and Oliver concedes.

“Okay, I am about 90% sure...” he admits. “Funnily enough I didn’t have anyone to really ask when I was in the League because at that time, annulling things with Nyssa wasn’t really an option.”

Felicity smiles, and lifts the small dagger out of the box, admiring it as she walks around the bench to Oliver’s side. “Good enough for me.”

“Yeah?” He asks hopefully, spinning his stool towards her and she steps between his knees.

“Mmmmhmmm,” she tells him, pressing her lips to his. “Sorry to say, your days of polygamy are over.”

Oliver gives her a look of disgust at the term and Felicity laughs as he pulls away from her kiss and pouts a little. “For the record, which I know it is pretty clear, you are the only woman I have ever wanted and will ever want to be married to.”

“Duely noted,” she tells him, placing the dagger and box on the bench beside his dinner, and wrapping her arms around his neck.

He kisses her again abandoning his fork, his arms sliding around her tightly, one sliding up the back of her soft tshirt, the other cupping her ass.

“Where’s-“ he asks between kisses but he doesn’t get the chance to finish his sentence because Felicity’s tongue is in his mouth and he moans. 

“Asleep,” she tells him, “I checked already.”

“I think I’ll skip dinner,” he tells her, cupping her face, her slightly breathless pants fanning across his face.

“Excellent decision,” she tells him with a wink, sliding her hand in his and pulling him towards their bedroom.


	9. (Post 6x23) 9 Weeks Later

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (Post 6x23) 9 Weeks Later

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: I am not really sure what this is. It just kind of planted itself in my head and would leave until I got it on screen. Sorry not sorry. I have intentionally left some plot holes (just like Canon…). This is OTA (including Roy) focused. Not NTA.

**Post 6x23: NINE WEEKS LATER.**

 

**Nine weeks later.**

**ARGUS Headquarters, Star City. 6.03pm.**

Felicity blinks, her tongue heavy in her now suddenly parched mouth.

She wipes her sweaty palms on her black jeans and gets to her feet, her fingers grasping for the little white stick that’s marked with a tiny blue plus sign on the bathroom sink in front of her, while her other hand presses to her abdomen.

Well...this is the absolute worst possible timing for her to be pregnant. Like the _actual_ worst given Oliver had been shipped off to Slabside nine weeks ago and Will was still struggling with the fact his Dad might be in prison for the rest of his life.

She barely has a minute for the baby news to really set in before her ARGUS issued phone lights up, vibrating loudly against the sink, Lyla’s name flashing up on the screen.

Felicity reaches for it quickly, knowing not answering isn’t an option. It’s pretty likely Lyla’s actually already pinged her phone. Privacy while actually _living_ inside the headquarters of a clandestine government organization has proven to be almost non-existent.

“Hey, what’s up?” Felicity answers, wondering if she’s about to get a dressing down from Lyla given she’d been in the war room since dawn rerouting a satellite and running a new tracking algorithm her and Curtis had developed after an epiphany in the middle of the night to help narrow the search for Diaz.

Two levels above her in the war room they’ve set up for this operation, Lyla smiles almost triumphantly into the phone as she stares at the color CCTV footage on the big screen in front of her. “We just got a hit on Ricardo Diaz.”

Felicity freezes. “Yeah?” She breathes, her hands clasping the pregnancy test tightly.

“Yeah,” Lyla smiles, making eye contact with her husband, who is currently running point on tracking down Diaz and directing the Comms Tech to collate all the info he can as it comes in. “Whatever brainwave you had overnight - it _worked_ , Felicity. He was sighted 90 seconds ago on a gas station CCTV feed in Lamb Valley...where are you?”

“I’m downstairs…will be there as soon as I can,” Felicity says, stashing the positive pregnancy test in the zip pocket of her jacket. She disconnects the call, giving herself a strong hard look in the mirror.

”Don’t panic,” she tells her reflection calmly. “It could be worse. I mean, things do look pretty bleak - Oliver’s in jail, Will’s completely traumatized and you’re _pregnant_...but we got this….” she makes a face at her reflection. “Hoo boy; _yeah_ , I don’t believe me either. None of this was in the plan-“

A knock on the bathroom door has Felicity clutching at her chest.

“Everything okay in there Blondie? I’m getting a lot of strange looks…” The muffled voice of Roy, standing in as lookout, asks.

 _Shit! Roy_! She’d dragged him into this after he’d made a wisecrack the night before that she might be pregnant when two spoonfuls into her tub of ice cream for dinner, she’d needed to barf. Roy had probably hoped that his joke would have been met with a soft punch to the arm and a “hahaha”,but instead Felicity had realized that actually, _maybe_...

The weeks between Oliver’s trial and his incarceration had been crazy. And maybe they hadn’t been as through with birth control, or as careful as they should have been when they had been faced with losing each other so many times in such a short period.

Felicity flicks open the lock on the door and steps out, facing a nervous looking Roy who really doesn’t want to have to explain to anyone at ARGUS why he is creepily guarding the women’s toilets on the 3rd floor.

“Lyla got a hit on Diaz, we have to meet her in the war room,” she says, brushing past him.

He falls into stride with her almost effortlessly, bumping his shoulder gently against hers as they head for the elevator at the end of the hallway. “Cool...what about the _other thing?”_

 _F_ elicity rolls her eyes at Roy. She stops suddenly, turning towards him, hesitantly checking the corridors for any sign of faces she knows. None of the others needed to know about this until she’d had time to process. And figured out a way to communicate with Oliver that wouldn’t possibly be intercepted by someone working for Diaz.

It had been that very threat that had kept her from visiting him over the last nine weeks - the very real risk that someone at the prison, inmate, guard or visitor would recognize her and her whereabouts would get back to Diaz. She’d insisted that that very idea could work for them, could be an opportunity to draw Diaz out, but John had been dead against it under Oliver’s instruction. And, unfortunately, Oliver had the upper hand in loyalties at the moment, he’d thrown himself under the bus for the team, and John wouldn’t budge despite her pleas.

“The other thing is _complicated_ ,” Felicity admits as calmly as she can given the positive pregnancy test practically burning a hole in her pocket.

But Roy just blinks at her in response. “Felicity, there are only two possible outcomes.” He softens when Felicity fidgets nervously, shifting her weight from foot to foot, looking down at her belly momentarily. “It was positive?”

Felicity nods. “Yep,” she says popping the p. But there are no other words...because, wow, she’s pregnant and she’s going to have to raise his - _their_ \- _two_ kids without him...and her chest starts to tighten.

Roy smiles at her gently, calmly. He’s not usually great at this kind of stuff, but the moment John had gotten word to her that Oliver was in jail, Thea had asked Roy to step up and to return to Star City and help Felicity in her stead. The plan was that Thea would join them, her family, when she could. And so, here he was, stepping up and helping his friend who frankly looked a little bit terrified at the news.

“Hey, Felicity, we got this okay? We’re going to get Diaz. And we’re going to get Oliver out of prison.”

Felicity nods, taking a deep calming breath, trying to let Roy’s positivity wash over her.

“Besides,” Roy continues, “you’re a great Mom-“

Felicity clicks her tongue and shakes her head. “ _Stepmom_ , to a teenager. That’s so different. He can feed himself...most nights he has to remind _me_ to eat…”

Roy laughs, and it makes Felicity smile a little. “Maybe that’s true, but, you mothered me for years before that. And I mean, I am practically a toddler compared with Will...and I definitely turned out better because of your parenting...”

Felicity huffs a laugh because it is a nice sentiment, it just doesn’t help as much as she would like. “This is the worst timing,” she reminds him.

Roy grins. “Well, you and Oliver always did have a terrible sense of timing; somethings don’t change. That’s been half the fun...”

The elevator door at the end of the short hallway opens, stealing both of their attention to a stoic John Diggle, his arms folded against his broad chest and his eyebrow quirked high at the absolute lack of urgency from his friends on the news.

“We’ve waited nine weeks for intel on Diaz. You two coming or what?”

Felicity nods resolutely stepping towards him eagerly. One worry at a time, and right now her focus needs to be on Diaz.

“Let’s get him.”

 

*

**Slabside Maximum Security Prison. 8.47pm.**

Oliver Queen’s grown pretty accustomed to darkness over the years, but when lights out hits a whole 13 minutes earlier than scheduled, cloaking everything in darkness while the power to his cell block falters momentarily before the red safety backup lights in the block corridors flick on, he knows what’s up.

He counts the seconds, calmly and evenly under his breath, the sound lost amongst the cries of outrage and taunts from his fellow inmates behind the bars of their cells. As he approaches 178, a figure looms at his cell door as anticipated, dressed in black gear and a flack jacket, the same look of total disdain and annoyance he’s come to know too well painting her tightly schooled features. Her hair is longer than he last saw, tied into a tight bun at the base of her scull, fully prepped for a mission.

“You’re early,” Oliver tells Samanda Watson, and she half rolls her eyes as she overrides the electronic lock on his SuperMax cell with small palm-sized Skelton key; one he knows instantly Felicity would covet for a million reasons he’d barely understand.

God _Felicity_ , his chest tightens because she’s going to kill him; he knows it.

“I can leave you in here if you’d prefer,” she says sharply, her eyebrow cocked. “It’d save me a boatload of paperwork, plus the weeks of damage control we’ve got coming. Not to mention I’ve kind of enjoyed not looking at your smug hero-complex face.”

Oliver huffs a laugh; he figures it’s probably a popular opinion in Star City right now and gets to his feet. The lock clicks open and the cell door rolls clear, leaving a formidable Samanda Watson in the doorway. She cocks her head at him in the dark red light, the yells of surprise and jeering from his inmates bouncing off the walls, taking in his buzzcut, thicker longer beard, and the added bulk two to three hours of workouts per day have added to his frame. He doesn’t look like the clean-cut, quaffed ex CEO Politician anymore. He looks like a man with a score to settle, a gigantic one.

“This doesn’t change our deal,” she reminds him. “I still don’t like you Oliver Queen. But, Diaz’s cronies -and your wife who has worked pretty tirelessly to plead your case over the last few weeks- have put a lot of things into perspective. Now, you ready to take that son-of-a-bitch down?”

Oliver nods. “I’m ready.”

Samanda smiles. “Then, let’s do it.”

*

 **ARGUS Headquarters, Star City. 2 am**.  
 ****

John makes a face as his hands reach for the first coffee in his recycled cardboard tray.

“One giant long black with four sugars - seriously Man, one day that is going to catch up with you,” he said disapprovingly handing the coffee to Roy who rolls his eyes in return.

“One non-fat latte for you,” he says handing one to a smiling Lyla on the adjacent side of the sofa to where Roy is sitting, “and a decaf, caramel with half and half for our genius,” John says handing the cup to Felicity, who mouthes a gracious thank you. “Decaf isn’t usually your style at this hour.”

Felicity shrugs and smiles, her attention drawn back to the screen behind her. It’s just the four of them in here, using the time to monitor the intel that’s starting to come through for Diaz while the other half of the team sleep.

“This is about my sixth coffee for the day, she says breezily, the lie rolling off her tongue easily. “I’m practically 99% caffeine at this point. But I couldn’t say no.”

Felicity frowns as the car Diaz had stolen pings through the traffic cams along the freeway from Lamb Valley to Star City, journaling his progress.

“Where do we thing Diaz’s first stop is going to be, any bets?” She asks the team brightly.

“City Hall,” Roy says swigging leisurely from his cup, a foot resting nonchalantly on the opposite knee. “Breaking in during the dead of the night to ransacked the place seems like his style.”

Felicity waggles a finger at him. “Yes, but there is nothing left to ransack. City Hall, by all means, is pretty shell like these days after the,” she makes quotation marks with her fingers, “ _purge_. There is a caretaker government at the moment, until the election next month. And Diaz has no friends left in Star City.”

“That we know of,” John corrects rationally, sitting down on the arm of the sofa beside Lyla. “Sure, we’ve rounded up ever single _known_ associate from the list, but, liked him or not, Diaz had a certain charm. It’s how he took the city from us in the first place. Guys like him don’t disappear for nine weeks without a trace and then suddenly pop up out of the blue for no reason.”

Felicity spins her chair towards John. “What do you think he’s up to? It’s not enough that maybe he’s bored playing the invisible man? What’s he planning? Because I’ve been worrying for weeks that he was going to show up looking for me and _he_ never delivered.”

“That’s a good thing,” John reminds her. “Even though you’ve been looking for Diaz, I don’t want him looking for you. For _any_ of us, until we’re ready.”

“Are we not ready?” Roy asks cocking his head. “I mean, everyone on OTA/NTA or _whatever_ is starting to go a little stir crazy. I’m pretty surprised Faux Laurel hasn’t blown the door wide open trying to escape.”

“Losing Quentin really did a number on her,” Felicity admits. “She feels responsible. She wants to see this through.”

Lyla sighs. “And, _Laurel_ isn’t actually a prisoner, she’s in protection just like the rest of you.” John eyeballs her for a moment and she clears her throat. “Sorry, rest of _us. Oliver’s known associates_ ,” she corrects digging in her pocket for her vibrating phone.

The three former members of Team Arrow look towards Lyla and she grimaces.

“Michaels,” she answers, but her gaze settles immediately on Felicity, who innocently peers back at her sipping her coffee. “Okay. Yes. Yeah, send them up.” She disconnects, her mood so measured it has Roy’s head on tilt, a red flag for his curiosity. “Agent Watson is here.”

Felicity blinks. “Do you think she knows about Diaz?”

Lyla shakes her head. “Not from us. I know we have to keep Watson on side for this, but I wanted to have more information before we made a move on Diaz.”

“You think maybe she’s reconsidered the whole not arresting everyone whose ever worked with the Hood, Arrow or Green Arrow?” Roy asks. “Because that’s going to clear out your living quarters pretty quickly.”

“Not to mention most of my staff,” Lyla says. “No, I don’t think it’s either of those things.” She catches the door to the elevator opening through the glass walls behind Felicity, and her breath catches a little in her chest. Roy and John are on their feet immediately, both looking over Felicity’s shoulder.

Felicity places her coffee on the desk beside her keyboard, her back to the door. She begs the question “Well, what’s the plan?” to Lyla, John and Roy at the same time the door to the war room opens.

“I’m the plan,” Oliver says calmly stepping into the room ahead of Watson.

Felicity’s eyes squeeze shut because _awesome_ , now she can add Oliver hallucinations to the list of strange things her body is doing both from stress and her newfound pregnancy, but the room is silent, waiting with baited breath.

Roy clears his throat nervously. “Blondie,” He prods and his tone of voice suggests she’s missing something.

She turns slowly, and she’s going to feel like a complete idiot when she opens her eyes and Samanda Watson is blinking at her in that owlish judgy look...

And Samanda Watson is there. But so is Oliver. All 6’1 of him. His hair is clipped short and he’s as clean shaven as his stubble look allows, and oh wow he’s so huge...

A chorus of laughter sweeps the room and Felicity facepalms. “I said that aloud didn’t I?”

Oliver clears his throat, his hands at his side, his thumb and forefinger tapping together nervously, but his eyes shine happily, proudly, back at her. “Yes.”

Felicity beams at him. “Guys, can we have the room for a minute?”

“You can have _five_ minutes,” Lyla says with a smile stepping past Oliver, her hand squeezing his shoulder as she passes. Watson excuses herself and follows Lyla to chat.

“The walls are glass,” John reminds them teasingly, pulling Oliver into a quick bro hug. “Good to see you, Oliver.”

“Fully noted,”Oliver tells him. “You too John.”

John leaves and Roy steps forward.

“Aren’t you meant to be with Thea?” Oliver questions calmly and Roy nods obediently.

“Yes. It’s a long story. But, we though Will and Blondie might need me more. Thea sends her love.”

Oliver hesitated for a moment before pulling Roy into a quick hug too. “Thank you for being here for them.”

Roy nods. “I’ll give you guys a few moments. Should I get Will?”

Oliver nods, his voice faltering a little. “Yes, _please_ ,” he says gravelly, choking back the emotional lump in his throat.

Roy nods, sends Felicity a beatific smile, and then leaves, rushing off the get William.

It takes a whole five seconds for Felicity to be in Oliver’s embrace, her arms around his neck pulling him toward her for the long tender kisses they never got at goodbye. They both cry like idiots, tears streaming down Felicity’s face, as Oliver sobs for a few moments into her neck her fingers combing through his hair and down his neck calmingly, once she’s finally let his lips go. She feels like a weight has been lifted, like she’s been breathing shallowly for so long she had forgotten what it felt like to have a lung full of air.

“I am so _fucking_ angry at you,” she tells him glaring up at him, and he chuckles at her cussing.

“Good thing I have the rest of my life to make it up to you,” he tells her matter-of-factly, pulling her closer, his arms so tight around her he fears letting her go.

It’s a statement, a confirmation that their time apart, his incarceration, is over.

“How?” She asks prodding his chest, and he smiles flattening her hand against his heart. “I will tell you everything; later. This is more important. How are you?”

Felicity shrugs. “I’ve been better,” she admits, her fingers tracing his jawline tenderly. She can see in his freshly shaven stubble the outline of some bruises a few days old. She presses her fingers to them, before kissing them softly with pecks trailing up his jaw. The very act makes him feel whole, like the last few weeks of emotional torture from not only his fellow inmates but himself start to shift and peel away, like barnacles on wave weathered rock.

“I am fine,” he reminders her. “You should see the other guy.” And it’s almost a joke, half-truth, because the other guy had a broken nose.

“Oliver, you were meant to be keeping your head down.”

Oliver grimaces. Yeah, he was. But people had a lot to say. He was fine with whatever they said about him, but weeks of taunting about Felicity and William, the cellmate across from him had gotten a piece of Oliver’s mind in the cafeteria.

“I tried. How’s William?”

Felicity smiles. “Resilient just like his Dad. He’s missed you terribly.”

Oliver kisses her again softly, his arms around her waist. “You’ve lost weight,” he notes, and yeah, she had. She’d been chalking that up to the stress barfing...which sounds more and more excruciatingly naive the more she thinks about it. The words dance on her tongue, the positive test prodding her sharply in her pocket as he holds her tightly, but she stops herself, half knowing this isn’t the time or place, and half wanting some actual verification from a doctor before she gets their hopes up. But, at the end of they day, it’s terrifying. How do they make space for a baby among big bads?

“Like you can talk wall of muscle,” she teases, trying to redirect. “You are huge. I mean not John huge, but like, wall-of-muscle, sledgehammer-to-tires-like-the-old-days _huge_.”

Oliver cocks his head at her. “Are you saying I was getting soft…?”

Felicity grins. “Are you kidding? Soft? You? _No_. I just meant you went from an eight-pack to a six-pack, to maybe like a,” she runs her hand across his abs, “ _twelve-_ pack?” She tries not to sound excited and he laughs.

“Physically impossible,” he tells her, kissing her again. “God I missed you-“

The war room door opens quickly and-

“DAD!” William says running in heading right for them with no intention to slow down.

Not wanting to let either of them go, Oliver pulls Will into his hug with Felicity, burying his face in his son’s hair.

“I missed you so much,” he tells him, and yeah now all three of them are blubbering messes.

Outside the door, Roy looks to Watson who seems incredibly uncomfortable with the silent insinuation from Lyla, John, and Roy that this is all her fault.

“We take Diaz down and everyone gets their happily ever after,” she reminds them.

“Well, do we have some news for you,” Lyla tells her with a smile.

“I’ll be glad to hear it. For the record though, the arrest, prison, outing himself as the Green Arrow, that was all Oliver’s elaborate plan.”

John’s brow furrows for a moment before he says, “Felicity is going to divorce him.”

“He’s so screwed,” Roy agrees scratching his head.

 

_(TO BE CONTINUED)._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Part 2 is on the way! I just need a couple of weeks. The more you feedback, the quicker the words flow!


	10. (Post 6x23) Nine Weeks Later - Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (Post 6x23) Nine Weeks Later - Part 2: Oliver's reunited with his team and family, but the last nine weeks has taken its toll on everyone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone's amazing response to this ficlet! I've added a third part to this story so stay tuned.

**6x23 (Part 2): Nine Weeks later.**

 

**FOUR DAYS LATER.**   
****

**Somewhere in Star City. Early afternoon.**

 

It had all the makings of a good plan...

...until it failed.

And then it all went to hell very quickly. They’d brought a lemon to a knife fight and yeah, surprise to surprise, they’d lost.

Okay, maybe it wasn’t that dramatic; But it was hard for Felicity not to be a little bit hysterical in a lonely damp and dark basement, her hands and feet bound and nothing to occupy her mind but the super pissed off thought that she’d been betrayed, her overprotective husband had been right all along, she trusted too easily, and look where it got her. Oh, and the fact her hormones were not as well nourished right now as they probably should be. Her body it seemed had a pretty epic sense of self-preservation right now given she’d barely got through a couple of hours over the past week without barfing, but she’d seemed to make it through at least the last six without any nausea....which probably had more to do with how completely terrified she was right now and that her body was running on adrenaline.

Felicity sighs deeply, the bite of the handcuffs around her wrist grazing her already red and raw skin as she tries again to loosen her right wrist just a little more to stop the gnawing pain in her arm. She’s pretty sure her left arm is fractured _somewhere_ (maybe her elbow?) as it hurts like a bitch, but so does her back from sitting on this cold decrepit concrete floor.

What the fuck is she going to do?

How the hell is she going to get out of this one?

 

**FOUR DAYS EARLIER.**

**ARGUS Headquarters. 3.36am.**

She doesn’t know how they do it; how they make small talk about the last nine weeks with Lyla, John, William and Roy for almost an hour until they retire to her quarters, exhausted but buzzing that they are now back within each other's orbit.

They’ve barely stopped looking at each other the whole time, sharing looks and glances across rooms and conversations. She’s more than ready to be alone with him. To just hold him...to have him hold her...to rip all his clothes off because I mean if that wasn’t one of the top five benefits of being married to him, what was?

With a lot more subtly than Roy’s every possessed before, Roy suggests Will bunks with him for the foreseeable future to give his Dad and Felicity some privacy, and once the Xbox is packed up and Will’s promised he’ll move his clothes out tomorrow, they are finally alone.

It takes no time after the door closes behind their preteen son for her to be in Oliver’s arms again, and she makes quick work of tearing his henley up and over his head. But, just as he pulls her closer, one hand on her hip, the other cupping her ass and his lips descending hungrily towards hers, it hits her out of nowhere, a wave of nausea with the worst possible timing.

She pushes him away quickly, one hand firmly on his chest as the other covers her mouth, and he steps back startled before she turns quickly and _bolts_ for the small ensuite bathroom attached to room.

She has no time to explain before her dinner and subsequent decaf coffee end up in the toilet, along with what feels like gallons of water, and the hint of soda and popcorn she’d had for an afternoon snack.

He’s quickly at her side, holding back her hair and rubbing her back comfortingly as she continues to retch up what feels like the entire contents of her stomach. The last time he’d seen her this sick she’d had food poisoning in Bali and it had wiped her out for the best part of three days. But that had started after hours of stomach pains and a very questionable fish dish they’d brought from a street cart under the guise of being a local delicacy. This bout of sickness literally came from nowhere...

Eventually, the nausea subsides and Felicity’s barfing stops. She’d been clutching so tightly to Oliver’s hand that she’d left deep crescent-shaped nail marks in his skin, but Oliver doesn’t say anything about the marks, just hands her a fresh damp cloth to wipe her mouth and face, and a bottle of mouthwash from the shelf by the sink.

“Ugh, I’m so sorry,” she moans, her hands clammy and shaky as she pushes her aching body to stand and takes a swig of mouthwash swishing it about her mouth.

He helps steady her, and she empties the mouthwash into the basin before wiping at her face and tossing the cloth into the sink after it. She rubs her sweaty palms together pensively as she considers how on earth she going to try and explain this-

“Felicity...I don’t really know how to ask this, but...are you pregnant?” Oliver asks softly, and she blinks back at him with owlish eyes.

“I…” she gapes at him. She has no words. For the first time in her entire life, Felicity Smoak is speechless. The literal first time. Ever.

She nods slowly, hoping the calm movement won’t scare the now very silent, very surprised looking Oliver blinking back at her with what she can only imagine is the mirror image of her own stunned face.

 _“Yes._ I mean I think so. The test I took was positive, but I wanted Dr. Morrison to confirm it before I told you-“

And then the sweetest thing happens, cutting off her panicked explanation. Oliver closes the distance between them, his hands cupping her face gently as he tips her gaze towards him. His eyes scan her face carefully, re-memorizing every inch of it lovingly. The intensity steals her breath a little, he’s looked at her the same tender way for years, like he loves her with all of his heart and she’s not going to lie, it is so damn near enchanting (and admittedly it’s how she ended up pregnant in the first place...).

“You’re sure?” He asks, and he tries so hard to keep his excitement in check, but she grins up at him and then digs into the pocket of her jacket revealing the positive pregnancy test.

He takes the test with one hand, staring down at it intently. _Positive_. They’re going to have a baby...their baby...

“Oliver?” Felicity asks a little nervously. “Are you okay-?”

“A million times better than okay,” he tells her with a grin, his lips descending on hers. He kisses her softly at first before dropping to his knees in front of her and lifting the hem of her t-shirt to press his lips to her stomach softly. He smothers the smooth plain of her belly in kisses, making her chuckle despite the tears that have welled up in her eyes, as his beard intentional tickles against her skin.

“Hey there little one,” He winks up at her, and she cards her fingers through his short hair, encouraging him.“I’m your Dad. And I love you so much already.”

 

*

**The following day.**

**ARGUS Headquarters. 7.09am.**

He can feel her rousing beside him, the way she stretches into the line of his body and yawns softly, her legs entangled with his. She’s always slept like this beside him, her feet nestled around his calves, her head in that comfy spot on his shoulder and her pillow-ravaged hair tickling his nose. His bed and life had felt so empty without her over the past few weeks.

But even in her proximity, he’d barely slept over the last three hours, his mind systematically taking stock of everything that’s happened over the last ten weeks on replay. He’d fallen into the same pattern at Slabside in his small dark cell once lights out had been called and the jeers and taunts from the men around him had grown louder.

But somehow even with the silence and the calmer atmosphere, finding sleep had been hard, his thoughts and worries more visceral now he’s back with Felicity and William and realizes just how much he’s missed in two months.

The rooms around them house his closest friends, team members, and family; but there are significant holes in the string of names on doors down the hallway. Not everyone he cared for was here: Donna had a detail of agents keeping an eye on her in Vegas, Raisa was staying with family in Russia, Thea’s last whereabouts during her last check in with Roy had been Greece, Sara had returned to the Waverider but was on call if they needed...and Quentin... _well_...

Oliver’s breath catches uneasily in his throat as his eyes dart around the small dark room with no organic light;it’s small, triple the size his cell had been, but no less confining for Felicity and William, and that reignites a guilt he’d been grappling with-but had hoped to ignore-for weeks.

He’d wanted this reunion to be happy, and it was, but, as the sacrifices started to add up in reality, the weight of all the things he couldn’t undo settled on his shoulders. He couldn’t bring Quentin back, and he couldn’t erase the last few weeks where his wife has struggled with not only raising their son without him but growing their second child...

“I can hear your brain ticking away,” Felicity murmurs, and Oliver smiles a little as he presses a soft kiss into her hair, nuzzling closer.

“Sorry,” he apologizes softly, “it’s hard to turn it all off. It’s all I’ve had for a few weeks.”

Felicity’s eyes open slowly, her eyelids heavy and exhausted, but when she finds him there, looking down at her tenderly, all of the guilt and sadness written over his face - a floodgate she’d very carefully kept closed bursts open.

Oliver spends a long time tracing her hands and face with kisses trying to console her, and it takes long sad minutes as Felicity weeps openly for her to regain control over the emotions that had been pushing at her seams, threatening to burst like an angry ocean at artificial banks, for weeks. He’s right; turning it all off has been so incredibly hard, but she’d tried to be strong for William because he’d needed her to be. Losing Oliver and the first anniversary of his mom’s death had broken him. She’d been thankful that Roy had turned up on a whim, because he had a way with William, just like Thea did, at helping say the right things at the right time. And he gave off this older cooler brother vibe that William had thrived on despite the emotional chaos.

 _“_ I am so sorry,” he whispers to her over and over as she cries. “I love you both so much. I am so sorry.”

Eventually, her tears clear and Felicity, overwhelmed with a rush of emotionally fraught energy, lunges forward and silences Oliver’s apologies, her lips hungrily finding Oliver’s as she climbs into his lap naked.

She teases him, her warmed skilled hands all over him, coaxing him carefully out of his own thoughts and into new ones. He’s hard in no time, but it isn’t until he pants a low “ _Fucccck_ , Felicity,” as her hand glides his slick firm length, that she takes him inside her again, making love to him with a greater sense of urgency, need and healing than she’d needed a couple of hours before.

As they grow closer to their release, their bodies moving together quickly, Oliver slows his thrusts, pushing deeper instead of faster, changing the ferocity Felicity is riding him and taking her pleasure from him. His hands cup her face, hold her close, her breath hot on his cheek as he thrusts into her slowly letting them both feel every long inch of him inside her, their mouths unclasped but their eyes locked until she eventually comes (as silently as she can with Roy and William in the room next door), and then in turn, him.

She kisses his closed eyelids over and over as he grows soft inside her, his brain momentarily quiet of everything but her. She holds him tightly, her arms around his shoulders, his face pressed into her neck for long minutes just grounding them, finding each other in all the chaos of their lives.

 

*

 

**ARGUS Headquarters. 1.27pm.**

“How’s he doing?” Felicity asks with a wide smile, her arm slipping around William’s shoulder as she appears at the boy’s side.

He’d been down here in the training area watching Oliver for over an hour, too anxious to let his Dad too far out of his sight. And, Felicity had noticed that having William at his side had put the same particular swagger in Oliver’s step, melting some of her worries about the emotional toll the last few weeks had put on William and Oliver’s relationship.

“Awesome,” Will grins at Felicity, his eyes only momentarily darting away from the training mat in front of him where his Dad is sparring with a sweat-drenched John and Roy. “He’s kicking Uncle Roy’s six, which Uncle Roy is _really_ not happy about.”

Felicity laughs and makes herself comfortable on the bench beside William settling in for the show herself. There had been no movement upstairs in the war room all morning so she’d decided a little walk down to the training level would help clear her head.

Oliver and her were scheduled to see Dr. Morrison this afternoon for Felicity’s checkup and the very thought of trying to discretely slip away under William’s watchful gaze was a little unnerving and leaving her with some anxious energy.

“Sounds pretty standard,” Felicity winks at William. “Your Dad and Uncle Roy have always been fiercely competitive.”

Roy, frustrated that he’s absolutely getting his ass kicked and that Oliver looks like he’s barely broken a sweat and could keep going for hours, surges forward with newfound energy and power, coming at Oliver in his blind spot while his focus is on John. But Oliver disarms John, knocking the escrima sticks to the floor and then does the same to Roy before the younger man even has a chance to properly attack. Roy hits the mat hard, flat out on his back, his body relieved to be horizontal after an hour of training. Both Felicity and William wince, but Oliver doesn’t flinch in the slightest, just steps forward, and leans over Roy’s form with a look that has all the air of ‘I told you so’.

Behind him, John just shakes his head at Roy, grinning. “You never learn,” John tells him, hands on hips.

Roy shrugs with the little energy he has left and sighs. “Worth it,” he breathes, hand on his chest as he tries to catch his breath.

John laughs as Oliver leans down and offers Roy a hand to get up. Roy makes a face that has Oliver cocking his eyebrow teasingly, before Roy relents and takes his hand, hoisting himself to his feet.

“I _meant_ Oliver,” John says dryly, slapping his friend on the back. “He’s never learned to play nice.” He winks teasingly at Oliver before bending down to pick up his snapped escrima stick.

Roy groans hands on knees, trying to stretch out his back.

“You good?” He asks as Roy winces a little with movement. “I might have been a little overzealous.”

Roy gives him an incredulous look. “I think I need a shot of John’s Tennessee Whiskey and an ice pack,” Roy laments and John barks with laughter.

“Same old ritual then?” John teases throwing a towel at him and Roy grins.

“Of course.”

“Bud,” Oliver says walking towards where Will and Felicity are seated with a bright smile. “You want a turn? I could show you a few moves?”

Will gets to his feet excitedly, stripping off his hoodie quickly, as if a slow response will have his Dad reconsidering. “Really? You’ll teach me how to fight?”

Oliver laughs and shakes his head. “Some _self-defense_ moves.” But Will doesn’t care, anything is fine by him. Oliver looks to Felicity. “We’ve got time yeah?”

Felicity smiles and nods loving Will’s enthusiasm. “Yeah, about twenty minutes.”

John cocks his eyebrow. “You guys on the clock?” He says checking his phone, a little perplexed that maybe he’s missed an update.

“Felicity’s organized a Skype call with Jean,” Oliver tells him. “She’s pretty _annoyed_ I turned myself in after she worked so hard on my defense. I wanted to get her across my deal with Watson. Make sure that the immunity she’s offered for Diaz isn’t going to blow up spectacularly in my face.”

“Especially given someone didn’t exactly do their due diligence the _first time_ around,” Felicity reminds Oliver with a grimace.

John smiles. “I’ve told you before man - happy wife, happy life. See you in the war room later?”

“As soon as we’re done,” Felicity grins. She makes eye contact with Roy discretely, reminding him that they need a distraction for Will.

“Hey Will,” Roy says as Oliver grabs some gloves and pads from the equipment racks, preparing for his mini session. “Why don’t I go shower and once you’re done with your Dad we head back to the pad for another Xbox session? I think your Dad and Blondie will be a while with the Lawyer stuff.”

Will grins. “You sure you’ll be okay with both Dad _and_ me kicking your six?” He sasses and Roy rolls his eyes at Oliver’s chest-puffingly proud chortle.

“God help me. He really is a mini-you.”

Oliver fist bumps with Will before handing him a pair of gloves. “That’s my boy.”

 

**ARGUS Headquarters. 2.56pm.**

“I’m sorry, did you say _twins_?” Felicity breathes her eyes on the ultrasound screen in front of her staring at the two little white blurry shapes.

She’s gripping at Oliver’s hand for dear life because this whole thing is so damn strange, she’s having her first ultrasound in the ARGUS medical bay but it turns out that’s the least surprising thing happening today.

Dr Morrison, a late thirties former battlefield doctor and medic nods, smiling as he glides the ultrasound wand across Felicity’s relatively flat stomach. “I mean it’s been a while since my Obstetrics rotation at med school but, yes, from what I can see there is not one,” he points to the first little shape and then the second in turn, “but _two babies_...”

Two babies. As in two babies. As in, within the next seven months, she’ll have _two_ babies. Two...they’ll need two of everything...two cribs...two car seats...two bouncer thingos...oh google how the hell is she going to feed two babies with boobs her size? They’ll get bigger right? Like, have enough milk for two babies...? What if they don’t? What if they stay small? Can she bottle feed? And what about her chip? What does this mean? Is the bio-stimulant in the chip the reason she’s having twins...I mean there are no twins on her mom’s side...maybe her Dad’s? She never really knew the Cutler’s that well because her Dad’s family were estranged...what about Oliver’s family? I mean Thea joked once she had an evil twin...but that was just a joke right...? And Will...this is so much for him to take in! Will he be okay with two babies, two younger siblings, railroading into his life...? What if he isn’t? What if he hates her for it? _What if_ -?

“Felicity?” Oliver asks softly, and Felicity realizes she’d been staring so intently at the two little shapes on the screen that she’d missed what had been said.

“Sorry, um...” she looks at Oliver, but he has the strangest look on his face and she doesn’t know how to read it. Had he called her name a few times? Is he freaked out? Because he’d been so excited about one baby...but _two_...that’s a whole other ball game...speaking of ball games, how many kids would they need to have a full baseball team?... Oliver and Will love baseball...Felicity, _focus_....”Sorry....umm...what?”

Oliver smiles. He squeezes her hand gently, before using his free hand to sweep some of her hair behind her ear and caress her cheek tenderly. She’s honestly looking a little freaked out right now.

“Honey, Dr Morrison’s done with the ultrasound.”

Felicity swallows the lump in her throat and nods, looking back to Dr Morrison as he switches off the screen. “Sorry, I missed that last little bit. Having a tiny little conversation with myself, in my head.” She grimaces when she realizes just how crazy that all sounds. “Are they okay? And by they, I mean, the _babies_...”

Dr Morrison nods, his gentle smile putting her at ease as he hands her some paper towel to mop up the ultrasound gel on her belly. “It’s still early, by your estimation between nine and ten weeks, and I think that’s about right. But early indication is that they are both doing fine.”

Felicity breathes a sigh of relief. “That’s good news. I’ve practically been living off coffee and chips for weeks...”

Oliver makes a face and Dr Morrison laughs.

“Well, I’d suggest swapping to decaf right away and avoiding the vending machine on the third floor. And I think we should get you in with a visit to an OB/GYN as soon as we can so they can check everything out more thoroughly. I know things are _complicated_ right now, so take a few days to decompress, let the news settle in, do what you have to do, and when you are ready we can find you a specialist who can tell you more.”

“When can we find out the sex?” Felicity asks quickly, and then she turns to Oliver before Dr Morrison has a chance to answer. “Do you want girls? Or boys? One of each? Can we have one of each? I mean I don’t mean _pick_ one of each, I just mean I don’t really know how it all works. You know? Well I mean I know how it works, obviously, it works _really really well_ but-“

“Honey,” Oliver says calmly with a smile. “ _Breathe_. Dr Morrison said we can probably find out the sex in the next six to eight weeks.”

Felicity blinks at him owlish-eyed again. “That’s so far away. Do I not seem I calm? I feel calm? Am I not calm...? Is that bad for the babies-oh god, I really am already a bad mother-“

“Felicity,” Dr Morrison says, his hand on her shoulder comfortingly. “You’ve got this, okay? Twins were clearly surprising news, but, we can work through this. Right now it’s important that you get the rest, support and nutrition you need. Let’s just focus on putting one foot in front of the other and listening to what your body needs. You’ve got months to figure everything else out- including the gender of your babies. But please, don’t put too much pressure on yourself to try and solve all the mysteries of parenting and life right now.” He looks over to Oliver and smiles. “That goes for both of you. I’ll give you guys a few minutes.”

Oliver nods appreciatively as Dr Morrison leaves the room.

“Twins,” Oliver breathes and the very notion sounds incredulous.

“Yeah,” Felicity replies swiping at the tears on her cheek for a moment, before sitting up fully, pulling her t-shirt down over her belly and swinging her legs over the side of the bed. Twins. Holy shit...

“Are you-?” Oliver clears his throat. “Are those worried tears or-?”

“Happy tears,” she assured him, reaching out to pull him closer, her fingers hooked in the belt loops of his pants. He stands between her knees and reaches up to cup her face gently. “Very happy tears. Extra happy. Terrifying happy tears. This time last year you were getting used to parenting a teenager. Now we’re pregnant...”

“I love you,” he tells her softly. Because he never gets tired of telling her. “All of you.”

Felicity beams back at him. “We know,” she assures him. But she can see his mind already worrying that he has even more at stake with Diaz. He’s been itching to take him down. He’s like a caged cat at the moment, and that intensity is written all over him. “This will all be over soon Oliver. And we can go home.”

“You know I am terrible at being patient...”

“You?” She teases with mock surprise and a grin. “Never.”

“I’ve missed that smile,” he tells her, tracing her bottom lip with his thumb tenderly; and her smile grows.

“When do you want to tell William? And the others? Dr Morrison recommended a couple more weeks but with everything going on...”

“I still want to wait,” Oliver tells her, “if that’s okay with you? I don’t want this overshadowed in the same conversations about Diaz. I know that’s crazy but-“

“I get it,” she assures him. “We’ll tell them when all of this is over and we can celebrate properly. Until then, business as usual.”

Oliver smiles. “Business as usual but with fewer chips and coffee.”

“Less?” Felicity quirks an eyebrow. “I thought you’d go full dietician-slash-personal chef on me like you usually do...”

“Oh, I will don’t you worry,” he smiles, “let’s just focus on Diaz for now.”

Felicity sighs. “Ugh. Diaz.” She checks her phone and frowns, getting down from the bed. “Lyla wants to see us in the war room. She has an update.”

 

**The next day.**

**Star City Memorial Cemetery. 10.07am.**

“Lilys were Mom’s favorite,” Will says with a small smile, dusting the knee of his jeans from the soft freshly cut grass at his Mom’s grave. “She said they reminded her of her sister, my Aunt Karlie who died when she was a kid, and that always made her happy-sad.”

“Happy-sad?” Oliver asks and Will nods.

“Yeah. A bit like how I feel now,” William admits, shoving his hand into his pockets. “I know I have you and Felicity, but I miss her a lot.”

Oliver steps forward, pulling Will into a hug, letting the boy’s arms wrap around his waist. “I know you do Bud,” he tells him, kissing the top of the boy’s head.

“What was Grandma Moira like?” Will asks, and the question floors Oliver a little. Will’s never really asked after Oliver’s parents, and he’s never ever called Moira by name before. “Felicity told me she was elegant and beautiful, and...intimidating. And she probably wouldn’t be too happy you two got married.”

Oliver chuckles because he’s sure Felicity had a few _other_ choice ways to describe Moira Queen that she’d never say in front of anyone but Oliver. And even then they’d probably be a little restrained.

“She was very _protective_ of Aunt Thea and I,” Oliver admits with a small smile. “Even with Felicity and Uncle Roy.”

He meets Felicity’s eye from across the lawn where she stands with Roy and John and four other members of their protective detail, giving Oliver and Will a bit of privacy while they visit Samantha. She’d walked down with them and had been by Will’s side as he laid flowers by Sam’s gravestone, but then she’d offered to give them a minute and had stepped away.

He’d tried to ask her to stay, he’d wanted her by his side just in case, but she’d silenced him with a look, one that said she was only a few yards away and that he should have this moment with William alone.

The last time they’d been here together had been awful. William and Oliver had been so awkward and lost around each other. William had cried thick sad and angry tears and even though Oliver had tried to say all the right things, he’d done little more than add to the burning hatred William had had for him at the time and the part he played in his mother’s death. But, a lot had changed over the past nine months. And a lot more change was coming.

“Your Grandma _was_ elegant, beautiful and intimidating, and even though she could also be very kind, she didn’t always make the best decision.” Oliver frowns; this is a particularly hard conversation to have with a twelve-year-old. “Your Grandmother and I had our differences-not just when it came to Felicity-and I loved her dearly, but I don’t think I will ever be okay with what she did to you and your Mom pushing you both away from me.”

“Maybe they’ve run into each other in heaven and cleared it all up,” Will says with a smile, and it never stops surprising Oliver’s just how, smart, intuitive, and mature he is for such a young kid. He’d never have had a thought like that when he was William’s age...or let’s face it, ten years older than William. “Maybe that’s why we’re okay now too because they are both looking down on us.”

“I hope that’s true because we need both of them to keep an eye on us,” Oliver tells him with a smile. “You ready to head back?”

Will nods, tells his Mom again that he loves and misses her, and then slides his hand into Oliver’s and walks back towards the car with him. They’d agree to visit Sam as a group first as her grave was the least open and most private, in a smaller section hidden by rows of trees. The next visit would be Quentin, and Oliver had wanted to do that with Felicity alone.

Missing Quentin’s funeral had been one of the worst parts of his deal with Watson, and it had played havoc on the already significant weight of responsibility he’d felt over the whole Diaz fiasco and how things had played out.

With William safely with Roy, John and the security detail, Felicity and Oliver set off on foot across the cemetery to the newer section where Laurel and Quentin are buried.

“I am glad we did this,” Felicity says softly nuzzling into Oliver’s shoulder as they walk across the sun-soaked grass of the cemetery, her hand clasped in his tightly. “I think we needed it.”

“Me too,” Oliver smiles, his fingers squeezing hers in return. He’s conscious of their surroundings, that they are taking a huge risk being here when he’s technically a fugitive and they haven’t made a move against Diaz yet but her suggestion to get some air...some perspective...to take William to visit Samantha, to visit Quentin...had been hard to refuse.

Overnight Diaz had disappeared from their radar,but he was definitely back in the city, and no doubt planning his next moves. Oliver’s ‘escape’ from Slabside the night before last had made the international news, and the constant debate over his guilt vs his heroism for the city had raged on this morning loud and passionately.

It’d had thrown him for a six for a little while, and he’d sat watching a breaking news live debate with Bethany Snow on TVin the war room after breakfast with wide eyes and a dry mouth, surprised and stunned by the amount of simultaneous hatred and revered praise and love the city had for him.

It had been at that point, Felicity had suggested they make this trip. And, if she was honest, she needed a bit of time to talk to him about the giant weight of failure he was carrying around on his shoulders. She hadn’t seen it at first, she’d been so relieved to see him, and then she’d been so happy to see him she’d wanted to just rip all his clothes off, but after all that initial energy had been expended and they’d learned about the twins, when they’d laid in bed together last night in the dark, her head on his pillow, his fingertipstracing patterns on her belly, she’d sensed the change in him that came with nine weeks in a SuperMax prison with some of the worst of the world’s humanity.

“How’s your Mom holding up,” Oliver asks as they approach the newer section of the cemetery where Quentin was buried.

The section has grown significantly since they’d laid Laurel to rest, and that thought slices through Oliver. How many of the other names around them were collateral damage? How many other innocent lives had been taken at the hands of Damien Darhk, Adrian Chase, Cayden James and now Ricardo Diaz...just like Samantha....just like Quentin...?

Felicity frowns and gives him a sad smile that says Donna’s not okay, but she will be in time.

“She was devastated; like the rest of us. Sara offered to fly to Vegas and come back with her as she knew how much Mom meant to him even if things hadn’t ended very well, but Mom wasn’t up for it. She said they had exchanged emails and texts a few times since our wedding but she couldn’t bring herself to say a final goodbye; I think she realized she still had feelings for him and that really upset her.”

Oliver nods. Poor Donna. Admittedly her and Quentin’s relationship never made a huge amount of sense on paper, but they had been so enamored with each other before it had all blown up spectacularly in their faces. Quentin, like Oliver, had let his demons, his past, his addiction, ruin one of the best relationships of his life. Only unlike Oliver and Felicity, Donna and Quentin had never found a way to fix it.

As they approach his gravestone Felicity’s grip tightens in his. It’s adorned with bunches of fresh flowers and it’s sobering for both of them to be reminded how well loved he was, not just by them, but everyone else. By the City.

“Before he died, I told him he was like a father to me,” Oliver tells her.

“He was a good man,” Felicity agrees. “He supported you and loved you very dearly over the past few years. Both of us really.”

“He was the best of men; he understood it, understood it all.” Oliver breathes in a lungful of air trying to fight off his tears.

God, he’s an emotional wreck at the moment. He’s never been this guy really, he’s always pushed these feelings away, or tried to, but he can’t in front of her. If he was here with anyone else, even John, he’d feel stronger. But his walls are down and it’s hard. So damn hard. They shouldn’t have lost Quentin, just like they shouldn’t have lost Samantha; he was collateral damage.

“Felicity, I don’t know yet how I am going to fix this...what place Green Arrow has in the future of Star City...”

Felicity looks at him a little incredulously, and her silence has him looking her way, albeit a little uneasily as he’s a little in protective overdrive at the moment, even more so now she’s pregnant.

She turns toward him fully. “You really have no idea what’s been going on out here, in Star City, across America actually, do you?”

Oliver swallows hard. “I saw enough of this mornings news coverage. The _City_...the _Country_...the _World_ thinks I am a criminal, and I am...”

Felicity shakes her head, stepping forward to caress his cheek softly. She scratches her fingertips through his beard and he softens a little. She can see him struggling, that this morning really took its toll, that he’s been holding himself together for William’s sake, for the team’s sake.

“Baby, you’re so much _more_ than a criminal,” she says proudly, “You’ve become a beacon of hope. Sure, at first the city was angry. You lied, very _convincingly_ , for a long time. They felt cheated. They trusted you as Mayor and you lied to them and they were _livid_. Their hatred was overwhelming. I have no idea how William and I would have made it through if Lyla didn’t make space for us at ARGUS.”

Oliver grimaces. That little recap really didn’t make him feel any better at all... “I’m sorry-“

“ _But_ ,” Felicity presses on, cutting him off, “then, as Watson’s team started to clean up the city, and the SCPD and City Hall started to rebuild, people weren’t as angry. They started to understand that at the end of the day, the good you were doing, putting your life, our life... _our future_ on the line; it was all for them.”

Felicity smiles at him proudly. “It’s still early days, and it might take a long time for them to completely forgive and forget, but Oliver, you’re not just a masked vigilante to them anymore. You’re human. You’re _good people._ And you’re a hero. The inmates at Slabside might have hated you, but this city doesn’t. We’re not done yet. And I am going to be right here by your side to remind you of that, Oliver. Always.”

It takes a moment for her words to sink in; for it to become a reality. And then that last little dam inside him breaks, and he steps into her embrace, her arms around his shoulders, him clutching tightly to her as he buries his face against her neck and lets his tears free. Her embrace tightens around him, holding him close, holding him together.

He has so much to lose. But he’s going to get Diaz. This is it.

 

*

 

**ARGUS Headquarters. 12.19pm.**

“Okay, let’s go over that plan _one more time,”_ Dinah says hands on hips and surveying the team and their looks of pointed annoyance from varying positions around the room.

From his nonchalant lean on the wall at the front of the room, Oliver clears his throat loudly.

“I confront Diaz. Alone,” he tells them smoothly in that tone that seems to suggest that the team don’t have a choice. “Agent Watson and the FBI will provide back up.”

Rene sighs loudly from the opposite side of the room and shakes his head. Again. “Hoss, really?” He asks incredulously, his blatant disregard for Oliver’s plan as plain as day.

Rene’s sentiment echoes around the room; John shakes his head and folds his arms against his chest, Curtis’ face scrunches in a so not keen gesture, Laurel rolls her eyes a little and Roy gives a mirthless laugh.

“That’s one of your worst plans to date,” he tells him, “and I’ve backed some of your worst plays.”

“For the record, I agree with Roy,” Curtis tells the room. “Sounds like a suicide mission.”

Lyla frowns. “Oliver, no offense to Watson and her team, but ARGUS have been running point on tracking down Diaz while the FBI went through the process of cleaning out the city. Why would you cut us out now when we have the intel? When we’ve been watching Diaz while Watson ferries people in and _out_ of prison.”

“Not to mention you have a whole team who want to see this through,” John tells him. “We’ve put our lives on hold waiting for the right time to take him down, we are not just going to let the FBI take jurisdiction.

Oliver frowns. “We’ve lost _loved one_ trying to take him down. I am not putting anyone else in danger. My deal with Watson is that I get to take him down by myself. And I will. With all of you safely in this room.”

“It’s a no deal from me,” Laurel says getting to her feet. “You don’t get to waltz in here and call all the shots just because you used to be in charge. While you’ve been playing prisoner, we’ve all been preparing for a fight. I want to take Diaz down just as much as you do.”

Oliver looks at Laurel seriously, squaring his shoulders and drawing himself to full height. But his play at intimidation falls flat and she just rolls her eyes at him. Sometimes this Laurel and their Laurel are like chalk and cheese, but that, that backbone was pure Laurel Lance, no matter what Earth she’s from.

“Let me be clear,” Oliver tells her carefully. “Diaz is going to prison. You can’t kill him, Laurel, he’s not a score for you to settle. He’s sadistic and dangerous and we need to make sure that he’ll never have a stranglehold on this city again.”

“You don’t _own_ the score either Oliver,” she bites. “I am not saying I am innocent in all this; but I am pretty sick of my every move, my future being ruled by Diaz and tyrants like him. Just try and stop me,” Laurel tells him with a smirk that says she’ll one hundred percent disregard his orders for any opportunity to get her own revenge on Diaz.

“Okay, okay,” Felicity says diplomatically, getting to her feet and stepping between Laurel and Oliver, her hand on his chest. Her gaze scans among her friends carefully. “So, Oliver’s plan is a bad one.” Oliver blinks at her and sighs, his hands on hips in frustration that she’s not backing his play. “Who has a better one?” Her question sounds a little rehearsed and Oliver cocks his head at her, not buying for a second that she doesn’t have a plan of her own up her sleeve.

“ _We_ do,” Curtis divulges to Oliver with a smart smile and then looks at Dinah for back up.

“So, here’s the thing,” Dinah says calmly to Oliver. “We’ve been plotting our play against Diaz for weeks, and granted, it’s not as _heroic_ and _suicidey_ as yours, but it’s much better.”

“Yeah lot less chance of someone-namely _you_ -getting yourself killed in a solo suicide mission,” Roy admits with a grimace.

“We’re going to draw him out using one us as bait,” John continues. “And when Diaz takes the bait, we descend as a team. Laurel?”

Laurel grins at Oliver. “I’m the bait. After the way things went down, he hates me almost as much as he hates you. It's a no-brainer.”

“We can draw Diaz out with Laurel because we know Diaz is already looking for her,” Dinah continues. “Our intel says he’s desperate to find her.”

“I owe him a favor or two,” Laurel admits, and her tone is a little more serious, less sarcastic that she’d been towards him before. “And knowing that I have been working with Team Arrow...that’s got to have made him mad. He’s ready to cash in; but he doesn’t realize that while he’s mad about how things went down, I am fucking livid.”

Oliver shakes his head. “No.”

“No?” Curtis clarifies, his brow knitted in confusion.

“It’s too obvious,” Oliver tells them bluntly, his arms folded against his chest. “He might hate you,” he tells Laurel, “but it’s predictable. He’ll know by now that I am no longer in Slabside. If you reach out to him or suddenly show up in the city after weeks in hiding...it’s too obvious. It’s textbook.

It’s no coincidence that you caught Diaz on a traffic camera and you pinged him the whole way back into the city. He wanted you to see him. He was operating for months, years, under our nose, it’s hard to believe that he’d just turn up out of the blue without a plan.”

Oliver now has the attention of the full room, and his voice rises a little. “If we want to really sell the bait, to really taunt him and coax him out, it’ll have to be someone he doesn’t expect. Someone he knows I’d never be okay with using as bait, like Felicity or William...” Oliver frowns when he realizes they’d been bread-crumbing him all the way to this conclusion. He sighs pinching the bridge of his nose. “Which is exactly your plan, isn’t it?”

Felicity smiles at her husband confidently, but he can see the small flicker of hesitation that tells him a lot has changed since she agreed to this plan. “I’ve done it before. _Multiple times_. And, aside from a concussion or two, I’ve never actually been seriously hurt, so we have those odds working in our favor.”

Curtis opens his mouth to make a Hunger Games reference to Felicity but he is cut off by Oliver, who shakes his head vehemently at Felicity. “ _No_. Absolutely no.”

“Oliver,” John says calmly, drawing Oliver’s attention away from Felicity. “Man, I don’t think we have much of a choice. We’ve had time to cut this a hundred different ways. Felicity is the best bait to draw him out. We can’t risk a full-blown knife fight with whoever Diaz has in his pocket. We’ve got a plan. Sara’s on standby to help...”

Oliver frowns at John. “We had an agreement John,” Oliver reminds him, pleads with him.

“I _agreed_ that I wouldn’t let Diaz anywhere near your family while you were in prison. But Oliver, you aren’t in prison anymore...and Felicity’s plan makes sense.”

John’s got him on a technicality and Oliver snorts in annoyance, his hands on hips again. “Did you rehearse this?” He asks the room, and everyone grimaces back to him. Of course they did. Clearly before Felicity and him found out about the pregnancy.

“Yes,” Rene admits. “But, you know Felicity’s got this Hoss. She’s just got to lure Diaz out; we’ll take care of the rest.”

“I won’t even get close enough for him to touch me,” Felicity says brightly. “I’ll be perfectly safe. One the scale of one to DeathStroke, it’ll be a two at most.”

Oliver blinks at her. He can’t believe she’s even entertaining this idea right now when she can barely hold down lunch. But he supposes she doesn’t have a lot of choice. They’d decided to keep the news to themselves for a few more weeks; which made this plan particularly scary.

“Can we speak outside for a minute?” He asks and the whole room sighs a little.

“Yeah, sure,” she agrees happily, not deterred by the imposing question.

Oliver’s hand is on her back as he guides her out of the room and closes the door firmly behind them. They step away from the window, move a little further down the corridor, and while Felicity’s back is to the team, the not so impressed look is still clearly visible on Oliver’s face.

On the other side of the glass, Felicity frowns at the gloomy look on Oliver’s face. She 100% understands it...

“I don’t want _any_ of you,” his eyes flicker to her stomach, and he’s being extra cautious given they're are standing in front of a glass wall of windows and almost certainly everyone is watching them, “near him.”

“I wouldn’t have agreed to the plan if I knew it was pregnant,” she admits with a sigh. “Obviously it’s not ideal. So, what do we do?”

Oliver sighs, rubbing his face with his hand. “We have two options, we go back in there and tell everyone exactly why you can’t do it, or, I flat out refuse to let you and Laurel volunteers.”

Felicity makes a face. “I can’t believe I am going to say this - but Caveman option seems like our best option.”

“Caveman option?”

Felicity grins. “Yeah, you know when you get all super protective and tell me I can’t do something. I refer to it as the caveman option. Because, you get all broody and “me Oliver, do what I say” about it. And 99% of the time, I hate it.”

Oliver scoffs at her, hands on hips because he does it to either a) protect her from someone else or b) from herself...

“But,” she continues with a sweet smile, one that has him less frustrated than usual because it’s been such a long time since she tried the whole cute thing with him, “I am pretty okay with it right now. Fred and George have thrown me for a six a little...”

Oliver blinks. “What?”

Felicity grins. “You know, like the Weasley _twins_...”

Oliver tries exceptionally hard not to smile; but he can’t help it.

“If we have boys or girls for that matter, we are not calling them _Fred_ and or _George_ ,” he decides.

“We can debate the merits of Harry Potter baby names later...but what do we do about this in the meantime?” She asks. “At the end of the day, I just want to go home and move on with our lives. I can’t live like this anymore Oliver. The using either me or Laurel as bait plan, it’s a good one. A solid B plus.”

Oliver sighs, hands on hips. It doesn’t bode well that she not even 100% confident in their plan, but better plans have failed and worse plans have come through. “Honey, you’ve never got a B plus in your life.”

Felicity steps forward, taking one of his strong hands in hers gently. “Maybe once; but it was the only time. This plan won’t fail, I promise.”

“Famous last words,” he murmurs; but he’s not backing down, not on this. And he knows his best ally on this is going to be the person he trusts the least; he’s about to put a lot of stock in Laurel to avoid Diaz coming anywhere near his family. “Let’s run your plan but with Laurel. Let’s hope that no matter how obvious it is, Diaz takes the bait. You’ve spent the last nine weeks in protective custody with her. Do you trust her?”

Felicity frowns, but she nods. “Never thought I’d say it, but yes I do.”

“Then, I think it’s time you told me the rest of your plan...”

 

TO BE CONTINUED


	11. (6x23): 9 Weeks Later (Part 3)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The plan goes to hell. But so does Diaz.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: there wasn’t a huge amount of love for last chapter, but hey, that’s ok! I guess that's my fault for not finishing up before the Season 7 trailer was released. This is the final chapter for my Season 6 series and I have really loved writing this little spec fic even though it's clear very far away from Canon. 
> 
> Enjoy Part 3! 
> 
> And please leave me your final comments. xo

 

**The following day.**

**ARGUS Headquarters. Star City. 2.28pm.**

“Team, how are we tracking?” Felicity asks, pacing backward and forward in front of her monitor, trying to stretch a little, trying to sound optimistic because hell, don’t they all need a little pick me up?

Admittedly her ass had gone to sleep and she was starting to feel a bit restless. Running an op from ARGUS was so different from the bunker. Normally Felicity wouldn’t have anyone looking over her shoulder, but right now, Lyla and three of John’s best men Davis, Gale, Martin, were waiting patiently, watching, listening via the speaker comm system she’d rigged up lieu of running the op herself.

“We’re bored out of our minds,” Rene admits, from his position in the comfy lounge chair in the back corner of SC Jitters, his eyes looking up from the Hockey magazine he was pretending to read. “It’s been two hours. I’ve had three coffees. I look like a creep...”

“So everything is normal then?” Dinah teases from her and John’s position across the street in the ally.

“Ha,” Rene bites. “Maybe for you D.”

A few feet away, positioned prominently in the very center of the coffee shop, sitting at a high table, and drinking her now warmish iced coffee, Laurel frown.

“I am trying hard not to take this personally. I had hoped Diaz would hate me a little more than this.”

“Be careful what you wish for,” Oliver warns. But yeah, he’s bored too. Especially given how antsy Roy is beside him, itching to get back into the field in a new suit. “Overwatch, anything?”

Felicity shakes her head. “Nope, not a thing. All quiet at every known Diaz location we’ve tracked him to over the past couple of days. I wish I’d brought snacks because I am out of those too-“

The room around them at ARGUS starts to whirl, an excruciatingly loud evacuation siren blaring through the building. Lyla’s on the phone immediately with a bewildered look shot in Felicity’s direction about the horrid timing, trying to find out what on earth is going on as the rooms around them empty and people make for the fire exit. Martin and Gale leave the room quickly to secure the corridor weapons in hand, but Davis who’d been assigned the special security detail to Felicity the moment Oliver had left the building stays close.Another man, Richards, was with Zoe, JJ, and William in the living quarters.

“That’s creepy,” Felicity says loudly over the noise and on the other end of the comms she can hear a couple of the team snigger.

“What’s triggered it?” Oliver asks calmly, but before Felicity can reply, Lyla’s off the phone.

“Felicity, can you bring up the security camera from the foyer? We have a security breach. A guy with a bomb just walked into the building.”

There is a beat of dead air both in and out of the room as the words casually sashay out of Lyla’s mouth like no big deal.

“You're kidding?” Roy asks.

Felicity frowns as she patches through the security system and the eight cameras in the foyer pop up on her screen. “Nope, she’s not. He’s got a bomb and a gun...a big one...what a terrifying combination.”

“The man is Tyler Blackall,” Lyla tells her. “Former high-level member of the Quadrant. He got immunity for helping the FBI track down Diaz’s lieutenants.”

Oliver growls on the other end of the comms. “It’s a trap. Shit, we’re ten minutes out-“

There is a flurry of communication on the comms as everyone reacts, most specifically Rene, John and Oliver who all have kids in the building.

“We’ve got this,” Lyla assumes them calmly, with a nod to Felicity who is practically gnawing her bottom lip off with worry. “I have a whole security team. I will get Felicity and the kids to a safe house and will try to calm this situation down; that’ll buy us some time.”

“We’ll be there as soon as we can,” John assures her. “Be careful.”

“I will Johnny.” The comm clicks off and Lyla turns to Felicity. “Felicity, go with Davis. I’ll get Will, JJ, and Zoe. Stay sharp. We’ll meet you at the south exit in the garage. There is a go-van there ready and waiting.”

Felicity shakes her head. “No, I’ll come with you," Felicity tells her grabbing her tablet and two comms units from the small console she’d made her home over the last few weeks. She hands a comm unit to Lyla, who quickly shoves it in her ear.

“Go,” Lyla assures her. “I’ll be right behind with the kids, I promise Felicity. I’ll keep Will safe. You monitor things from the tablet as my eyes and ears.”

Felicity doesn’t have time to examine the plan; she trusts Lyla, so she follows Davis diligently, out of the war room, down the fire escapes to the car garage, desperate to get herself set up in the van so she can keep an eye on everyone’s progress from the tablet. She makes nervous small talk the whole way to the basement, but Davis to his credit takes it in his stride, grabbing her arm twice to stop her from running into things along the journey, her eyes glued simultaneously to three cameras - the pinhole camera on Oliver’s jacket as he and the team get back into their van, the security camera along the sixth floor corridor where Lyla, the security detail, and the kids are hauling ass to the fire escape and the foyer where Tyler Blackall has fifteen ARGUS agents hostage...

But, as they approach the white ARGUS go-van Davis pulls back a little, putting some distance between Felicity and himself, stepping behind her almost like he’s expecting her to run-

The door on the van in front of them slides open and Felicity stops dead in her tracks when Ricardo Diaz dressed head to toe in a sleek black suit steps out his signature large silver gun in his hand.

Diaz smiles menacingly at Felicity and it hits her - Davis was in on it. Before she has a chance to react Davis snatches the tablet out of her hand, his finger to his lips as Diaz trains his gun on her. He points to her ear, then his palm and reluctantly with another menacing wave of Diaz’s gun in her face, Felicity pulls the comm out of her ear and watches with baited breath as Davis drops it to the ground and squashes it under the heel of his boot.

“Hello Felicity,” Diaz drawls. “I heard you were looking for me. I think it's time we had a little chat, don't you?"

“I have nothing to say to you,” Felicity tells him.

Diaz laughs mirthlessly and calmly but swiftly turns the gun to Davis standing beside Felicity with his eyes on the security feed. Without warning Diaz fires at Diaz, shooting him in the neck right above the line of his ARGUS issued flack jacket. Felicity feels and sees it all happen at once, and then Davis is no longer standing beside her, but his hot blood is drenching her clothing, hair, and skin.

“So _Mrs. Queen_ ,” He torments, “what’s it going to be? Are you goin' get in the van, or should I leave a little message for your husband on the pavement here too?”

 

*

**ARGUS Headquarters. Star City. 3.15pm.**

Oliver is positively thunderous when he steps into the room, the door almost thrown off its hinges when it opens with a crack and his heavy combat boots storm in. He’s just had to explain to his son that his Stepmom just been kidnaped from their supposedly impenetrable _safe house_ and that he has absolutely no idea where she is or when they’ll get her back. So all up, today is really 0 for 3, and Oliver’s pretty fucking mad.

The team is all gathered in the war room, waiting almost silently for Oliver to arrive. The only noise is Lyla and John’s hushed measured conversation in the corner as they go over the security feed from the garage together.

The team looks up, all get to their feet quickly, as Oliver stares around at them all in turn. There is a lot of worry and tension in the room, and not one of them can make eye contact with him except John.

“What do we know,” Oliver asks and his tone is clipped and impolite.

But John doesn’t miss a beat, tapping a few times on the screen of the tablet until the screen on the wall comes to life with the security footage.

“We got this from the security camera in the parking garage,” John tells him hitting play. “The security team were called to the foyer for the bomber as a distraction. In the two minutes between Blackall walking into the foyer and the evac being triggered, the fake go-van pulled into the garage via the south entry.”

Oliver nods. “And Felicity?”

Lyla frowns. “I had Davis escort her to the garage ahead of us and I went to the sixth floor for Will, Zoe, and JJ. I thought it was best we split up, and she could monitor things from her tablet remotely.”

Oliver nods, the security footage playing out on the screen, following Felicity through the building. She looked relatively comfortable with everything until she got to the basement.

“I have worked with Davis for ten years,” Lyla begins, but Oliver silences that point holding a hand up to quieten her. He steps towards the screen hands on hips, watching Davis slow and slip behind Felicity right before the van door slides open and Diaz appears.

“Son of a bitch, he was in on it?”

John nods. “Looks like it.”

Everyone in the room flinches as Davis gets shot in the neck and bleeds out instantly, his blood covering Felicity and the floor. They’d already seen the body in the basement but somehow the footage, watching the actual shot was more visceral. A few moments later Felicity throws her cell phone on the floor and gets into the van with Diaz. The door is barely closed before the driver speeds off.

There is a moment of silence, everyone waiting for Oliver to speak first. Oliver turns to Curtis.

“Do we have any way of tracking Felicity? I know the nanites interfere with her spinal chip so they aren’t active anymore, but do we have anything else?”

Curtis stands and grimaces. “We thought about putting a tracker in the new chip upgrade but we hadn’t gotten there yet, and without her phone, I don’t have much to ping. I can see how far we can trace the van through CCTV though? It’s going to be near impossible with a white unmarked van but I will try. We have to assume that Diaz didn’t already think of that and they might have ditched the van already.”

“Try harder,” Oliver encourages and Curtis nods, sitting down at Felicity’s keyboard and getting to work straight away.

Oliver turns to Rene and Laurel. “Head out on foot and case the area looking for any signs of the van," he tells them. Oliver looks to Laurel. “Be smart, but be visible. I’m still counting on him wanting to talk to you.”

She nods, completely okay with playing bait again. Oliver looks at Rene. 

“Keep an eye on her. Make sure she doesn’t get herself killed.”

Laurel rolls her eyes but Rene smiles.

“I’ll send you the van details,” Curtis confirms. “Yell out if you find anything.”

“Will do Hoss,” Rene tells them and they head off.

Oliver turns to Roy and Dinah.

“Dinah, take Roy and do another sweep of all nine points of interest we have for Diaz. The ones Laurel told us about, and the ones he thinks we don’t know about - his old bases, factories, flophouses. _Everything_. I want to make sure that they are clean. And I want him to know we’re looking for him, he’ll enjoy the game, maybe he’ll reach out.”

“Got it,” Dinah says.

The second team leaves and Oliver turns to Lyla and John who haven’t said a thing, have just let him do his thing. And he’s thankful for it. He needs this right now, to feel like he’s taking action.

“What about the bomber?” Oliver asks Lyla. “Was anyone else hurt?”

Lyla shakes her head. “No. We think he was in radio contact with Diaz until the distraction was over, but as soon as the van was clear of the building, Blackall surrendered, dropped his gun and buckled to his knees. We have him in custody but you won’t get a hell of a lot out of him.”

“Why?”

John makes a face of disgust. “Diaz cut out his tongue three days ago. Blackall was in Star General when Diaz’s men hauled him out drugged to the eyeballs with painkillers, strapped a bomb on him, gave him an automatic and sent him inside the building.”

“Fucking hell,” Oliver says, swiping a hand across his face. Jesus, that’s really not what he needs to hear about the men who just kidnaped his pregnant wife.

“I am also going to pull the records for all rental places and van dealerships in the city, see if anyone has purchased something similar in the past few days. I know it’ll be a long shot, but it’s something,” Curtis adds.

“Also check the gas stations and police reports,” John instructs stepping closer to Curtis, his hand on the back of Curtis' chair as he watches him work quickly. “Someone has to have seen this van.”

“I’m sorry Oliver,” Lyla starts to say, stepping forward, but Oliver shakes his head.

This plan had felt wrong right from the outset. But he’d let Felicity talk him into it. And sure, her version didn’t include ARGUS being compromised or her being kidnapped, but he should have stuck with the original plan. He should have faced Diaz alone, and then he wouldn’t be in such a useless position - just waiting for any sign of Felicity and Diaz to turn up.

“You can’t have known this was going to happen Lyla,” he tells her. “We’re just lucky it’s not all five of you missing.”

Lyla nods, but it doesn’t make her feel any better. “I am going to check on JJ,” she tells the room heading for the door. “Call me immediately if you find anything,” she urges John, who agrees with a nod before she leaves.Her shoulders drop as she heads off down the corridor.

“Oliver, I’ll come get you if anything turns up. Go be with William, he needs you.”

Oliver hesitates; he wants to be here searching for her. But he’s right. William needs him more right now.

 

*

**ARGUS Headquarters. Star City.2.59am.**

Oliver wakes with a start, jolting himself awake, Felicity’s name on his lips. The room around him is quiet, dark, Will in a deep exhausted sleep beside him after hours of crying. He was so worried about Felicity, so terrified that at any moment someone might come for him, or for Oliver, and it had taken hours to calm him down until he’d eventually drifted off to sleep. Oliver however, had laid awake. The team was still on it, working hard to find Felicity, but even after sweeping the city, they had nothing.

Oliver sighs, rubbing his hands across his face and through his hair trying to wake himself up, and then rolls over watching Will sleep. His mind wanders back to Felicity and her tied up somewhere with Diaz leering at her and it makes him angry.

He needs to run, to fight. To hit something. Someone. It’s like being trapped in his cell again; his hands tied, a prisoner to his own thoughts. He wills Diaz to make contact, even just to taunt him, because he needs something to focus on other than feeling completely useless...

There is a quiet knock on the door and Oliver rolls out of bed, pulling the covers up around Will before heading to the door barefoot and in his sweats.

A sheepish looking Roy is on the other side.

Oliver squints at the brightly lit corridor. “Hey, everything okay?”

Roy holds out Felicity’s phone, handing it to Oliver. “You just got a message from Diaz.”

[ ](https://ibb.co/fAZjM8)

*

**The next day.**

**Verdant Nightclub, Star City. 5.03am.**

Things were going spectacularly bad.

Like, super spectacularly bad.

“...the difference between you and me Queen,” Diaz spits gruffly, his arms around Oliver’s neck in a chokehold, one that was quickly turning fatal, as he holds a spluttering and struggling for breath Oliver to the ground, “is that I don’t believe in mercy-"

_Pop. Pop. Pop._  

The bullets fire before she can even register how many times she’s pulled the trigger, the pain from her fractured elbow screaming through her body, her brain resolute that if she didn’t, this would have been the end of Oliver. Diaz groans loudly, both in anger and pain, before his grip on Oliver releases, and he stumbles backward, slumping to the floor, blood oozing from his chest, thick, red and warm. He doesn’t move, his eyes open and still fixed on Oliver, who clamors for breath, trying to force his limbs to move, to check on Felicity slumped against the dirty cement wall of the old warehouse, her hands in cuffs, a pistol still clutched in her grip.

Diaz had been channeling a sick sense of nostalgia when he’d brought her here, figuring there was no bigger fuck you to Oliver Queen than killing his wife in the only building in the city with his name still on it. In a building that was now nothing more than a crumbling decrepit Queen legacy.

Felicity can smell the blood as it pools around Diaz and her feet. It’s the second time in less than 24 hours she’s been spattered with someone else’s blood and this time she can’t keep her self together. It fills her nostrils so violently she can taste it with her heightened senses and she retches from both the smell and the intense pain from the gun recoil and her elbow, tossing the small pistol Oliver had given her when he’d found her to the cold cement floor. She tries to keep herself upright, tries not to pass out, but it’s all a bit too much and she’s dehydrated and exhausted and in a lot of pain. Her head swims and she retches again.

“Did he hurt you? Are you all okay?” Oliver asks softly, finally pushing himself up so he can check Diaz’s vital signs. Blood has trickled from his mouth, snaking down his neck across his dragon tattoo, but Diaz has no pulse. Cause of death: 3 GSWs to the back.

Felicity shakes her head; she’s got a giant cut on her left cheek, her left elbow is fractured, and she’s covered number of scratches and bruises, not to mention the bruises and cuts around her wrist from the handcuffs still around her wrist, but he didn’t hurt her or the babies in the way Oliver’s inferring.

Oliver shakes his head at Felicity telling her gently he’s gone, and a violent sob bursts from her mouth as she realizes the gravity of what she’d done. 

He’s at her side, pulling her up and into his embrace, his arms wrapped tightly around her as she cries.

“I didn’t have a choice,” she sobs. “He was going to kill you.” 

“I know,” Oliver soothes, “I know baby.” He pulls back to look at her, his hands cupping her face gently. “I’d be dead if it wasn’t for you.”

“I killed him,” she sobs her composure spirally, and Oliver knows he has to get her the fuck out of there.

He scoops her up and heads for the side exit. It’s slow and steady going up the old metal staircase, but Oliver knows this place like the back of his hand even in the dark. 

ARGUS, FBI, Police cars and paramedics come screaming into the parking lot at the front of the club just as Oliver and Felicity emerge. The team jump out of cars quickly and head towards them, but Oliver only has eyes for John, Roy, and Watson who push through, Dinah, Laurel, Curtis and Rene on the outskirts.

“Diaz?” John asks.

“He’s in the basement,” Oliver tells him, and the look that follows says enough. Diaz is dead. 

A Paramedic comes rushing forward encouraging Oliver to put Felicity down so he can help her because she’s clearly exhausted and injured.

The Paramedic is halfway through examining Felicity’s arm and taking her vitals in the back of the ambulance when Watson taps Oliver on the shoulder.

She pulls him aside, out of earshot of Felicity and the Paramedic, and blinks at him with owlish eyes, her eyes scanning him quickly, waiting for an explanation.

“I shot him three times,” Oliver tells her calmly, hands on hips.

“In the back?” Watson confirms, and Oliver nods. 

“He was going to attack Felicity.”

Watson purses her lips. “You’re sure?”

Oliver considers her for a minute. “The deal we had was to deliver Diaz alive.”

Watson sighs. “That’s _always_ the deal Oliver. We’re not the CIA.” Oliver nods, dropping his hands to his hips. He feels like shit and this conversation is the furthest thing from his mind right now. It’s over, and he just wants to be with his family. He sneaks a look over his shoulder at Felicity who smiles hesitantly back at him, worried that he’s about to be arrested again. Watson follows his gaze and softens.

“She’s been an A-grade pain the ass for the last nine weeks,” she tells Oliver and he chuckles. If anyone had said that off the cuff he would have decked them, but he knows exactly what Felicity would have been like, petitioning Watson incessantly for his freedom. She would have been like a dog with a bone.

“You know, I didn’t buy it at first. The whole eloping a week after you were indicted. I thought for sure it was all bullshit. But, I know better now. You’d do _anything_ for each other. She’d _kill_ for you.”

Oliver nods. “She _would_ ,” he concedes. “But she _didn’t_. I shot Diaz to protect her. He was going to kill her. And I would do it again in a heartbeat.”

Watson studies him for a moment before she nods too. “I will make sure it’s all in my report.” She pulls the small pistol Felicity had shot Diaz with from the waistband of her jeans and hands it discretely to Oliver.

He thanks her with a look and takes the gun, tucking it under his jacket, at the small of his back.

“That’s it?” Oliver asks, folding his arms against his chest.

Watson nods, a small smile on her face. “For now.” She offers her hand out to him to shake, ending their contract. “We have more to talk about, but you can go home to your family.” 

Oliver breathes a sigh of relief, scrubbing his hands across his exhausted face. He hadn’t slept properly for days. The thought of going home to Felicity and William without the thought of Ricado Diaz hanging over his head almost makes him deliriously happy.

 

*

**2 Weeks Later.**

**Somewhere in Aruba. 9.14am.**

Paradise.

That’s what Felicity calls it, and while he’s never been a huge fan of islands, Oliver is pretty sure Felicity is right, Aruba is pure paradise.

And so is having his family, Felicity, William, Thea, and Roy all in one place.

Oliver chuckles, watching from the sand and drinking his coffee as Thea, Roy and William frolic in the water. He cheers with William as Roy fakes a left and grabs Thea, boosting her into his arms and running into the waves with her. William follows and it’s incredible to watch them, this simple pleasure, seeing the grin on his son’s face as he high fives Roy and then helps Thea splash Roy boisterously.

“Hey, why didn’t you wake me?” Felicity asks softly, a smile on her voice as she wraps her good non-cast arm around him, leaning over him to cuddle into his back.

Oliver kisses her forearm gently. “You were sound asleep,” he tells her as she sits down beside him, and he pulls her close, kissing the bare skin where her bright blue kaftan had slipped off her shoulder, revealing the white strap of the new larger cup bikinis she’d proudly brought just yesterday, grinning from ear to ear as she told the salesperson she was pregnant. “I didn’t want to wake you.” Felicity gives him a devilish grin and he rolls his eyes. He’d already woken her up once this morning and it had been fantastic. “ _Again_.”

The beach is largely empty this morning and aside from a handful of sunbathers and swimmers, they have it to themselves. And, it’s heaven.

“Who's winning?” She asks nodding towards the water, smiling a little and waving back to Will before he starts the game of tag again with Thea and Roy.

This time Roy chases after him while Thea splashed at them both.

“I am,” Oliver says with a smile his eyes not leaving her and Felicity laughs, rolling her eyes at him behind her aviator sunglasses.

“You already got me pregnant,” she sasses. “You don’t have to be so cheesy." 

He laughs, reaching out to bring her closer for another kiss, smiling as he kisses her softly, slowly, his tongue slipping into her mouth teasingly. “Tell me you don’t like it,” he whispers in her ear in a low voice and she grins even wider.

“You are a tease Oliver Queen,” she tells him, brushing his cheek softly. And right now he honestly is, sitting on the beach, all tanned and ripped, shirtless, wearing wayfarers, drinking a coffee and watching his son with the brightest blissful smile. It just does _things_ to her...

“Hey!” Thea calls from the water as Roy wolf whistles in their direction. “This is a public beach you know!”

They wave it off, Felicity blushing a little because it hasn’t been the first time Thea’s made a comment about their PDAs this week. And it probably won’t be the last.

“Do you think we’ve reached maximum domesticity yet?” Oliver asks her.

And Felicity laughs, patting her hand on his knee.

“I certainly hope not,” she tells him and he grins right back at her.

 

 THE END.

 

AN: Thanks for reading! I couldn’t resist the pretty little bow.

**Author's Note:**

> Don’t forget to leave me a comment! Pretty pretty please? Prompts also welcome!


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